Ashes
by Mara Aoife
Summary: PRiS: AU: Sequel to Old Flame. So what are you going to do about it?
1. Chapter One

Chapter One: "You and I both know that that is impossible."

Ketana was crouching defensively next to her bed before her mind fully registered that she was awake again. This particular nightmare was nothing new, none of them were. Three years earlier, she had been ordered to kill a Kerovan prisoner.

She had.

She willed her heart to slow, straightened stiffly, and looked over at the clock. She had slept fitfully for close to three hours, just long enough to keep Alpha and DECA from threatening to sedate her.

A holopicture next to the clock caught her eye. It was of the four of them, laughing, in front of a fountain on the Imperial palace grounds. The picture had been taken the day before their world shattered. She stared at it for a long moment before putting it into the back corner of a desk drawer and heading for the shower.

Blisteringly hot water cascaded over her, loosening muscles and turning unnaturally pale skin red. She stood there for a long time, still trying to shake the aftereffects of the dream-memory. If she hadn't killed the prisoner that day, someone else would have. At least the death she had given him had been quick and painless, a far better end than any other he might have received. To this day she still was not sure whether or not it had been a test, or if she had really taken that man's life.

It didn't matter.

She had willingly slaughtered him because she could not bring herself to face the consequences of not following their orders. Their next assignment for her was easier to carry out. The assignment after that was easier still, until finally she stood on the field at Kerova with Sianna's blood on her blade.

Ketana reached for the soap, pulling herself away from the memory. She had come to terms with that day long ago, as much as one could accept the taking of another life. Hearing Sianna's forgiveness had also helped. Dwelling on the past wasn't going to accomplish anything, and she knew it.

The water clicked off, and she pulled a towel from the rack, with a vague feeling of gratitude for the simple joys. She wrapped the towel firmly around her body, the shower having done wonders. For two full days now, the absence of a persistent buzz from the back of her mind gave her a chance to finally start to absorb some of what had happened to her, to make sense of the new life she had suddenly been handed. The shattering of the last orb had given her a new sense of clarity, now that the memory spell was no longer trying to distract her and force her to believe things that were not true. When she had first awoke to a clear head her memories had threatened to overwhelm her, as thousands of things that had been pushed away for her suddenly clamored for attention. In the last few months of her captivity, while semi-aware of herself, she had been reacting more as the frightened eighteen-year-old princess whose pictures and favorite sayings crowded the mirror in front of her. A mere shadow of what she had become over the years.

She wasn't that person anymore, and memories of that innocence were painful. She began peeling things of the mirror, detachedly comparing her memories of herself and her friends to what they had become. Karone had matured into the competent, confident woman that there had only been hints of in the earlier pictures. The spark behind Zhane's deceptively flippant eyes had become a full-fledged fire. Today, though, it was still easy to see their younger selves peeking out behind these new eyes, not so removed from their former selves. Andros was another story, as was she. The last five years had made their mark on both of them, though neither seemed to truly show what they had seen. Andros had seen much more than he let on: there was a history written into his body that belied his age. He had many stories to tell. As for herself, she was, slimmer, harder, sporting a new scar under her left eye, and fairly certain that only those who knew her well would recognize their princess.

The pictures from the bathroom went into a neat pile by the door, followed shortly by trinkets, pictures and memories that littered the walls and made the desk unusable. This pile, and all of her old clothing, went into a laundry chute with a polite request to DECA that it be recycled or put into ship's stores as needed. The ship's arguments were silenced when Ketana pointed out that very little of it was practical now that she didn't have any ambassadors to entertain or dignitaries to impress, and probably didn't fit her now anyway.

She went to the desk with the intention of sending the fountain picture to storage as well, and stopped. Hesitantly, she set it back on the desk. As she pulled on her habitual black clothing and armor – the same that she had worn as Shadow – she could feel the picture, almost as if it were watching her. She couldn't quite bring herself to put it away, as much as it hurt that the girl in that picture was gone and would never return. Later, she resolved to find the time to move her few belongings from the scout ship over.

Before heading out the door, she grabbed a stimulant pack and slapped it on her wrist, welcoming the jolt of caffeine, adrenaline, and essential nutrients. Regular usage could destroy even a ranger's enhanced functions in short order. Without regular usage, she had difficulty functioning.

She picked up her work from the night before, losing herself in being busy. At Alpha's insistence, she went to the mess hall, and made herself some tea. The food replicators were down, and not particularly high on her list of things to fix.

It occurred to her, as she played with the half-empty cup, that there was something that she hadn't found in her cleansing of her room. Downing the rest of the tea, she headed for the storage bay.

It was there. She looked at the small, intricate box, and reached for it hesitantly. Cradling it in her hands, she sat back against the wall and looked at it for a long moment. The box had been a gift from her parents; its contents were from the rangers. The day they had given it to her, it had contained a piece of nanotechnology, one of the great wonders of the Kerovan Empire.

The Earthborn would call it a morpher. The technical explanation was rather involved, but the concepts were the same. The chip would bond to the wearer, determine optimal weapons and armor, and supply or store the needed items as necessary. It was a small thing, virtually undetectable when implanted into the skin.

The box was empty, now. The space that the chip had occupied in her wrist was equally empty.

_ It doesn't matter. It's not as if I'm exactly worthy of the mantle of a ranger anymore._

* * *

She was sitting cross-legged, with her back against the wall. Perfectly still, she was staring at the wall in front of her, unseeing. A small box was cupped in her gloved hands, the one he had put in storage five years earlier, unable to deal with the memories. She was still wearing the clothes of Shadow, the pale skin of her face standing out in sharp contrast. The scar on her cheek drew his eye, and Andros wondered how it had happened, and why it hadn't been fully healed. 

As he looked at her, he could still feel the touch of her lips and the heat of her body pressed against his. He could still remember the perfection of their bond, the unity of their movement during the fight on the beach. He could still remember being completely whole for the first time in years. That was gone. She had closed herself off completely, for her protection, and, he suspected, for his. On her return and the restoration of his memories he had made sure to reinforce his own mental barriers, embarrassed at how lax they had become. He had left the faint link to her open, in hope.

"It's empty," she said quietly, giving no indication that she had seen him. "Somehow I had hoped..."

"What?"

"Nothing," she said, carelessly throwing the box back into the storage container. "One of the primary lines running into the communications array is fried, and I can't fix it alone."

"Ketana—" he started, wishing that his brain wasn't quite so fuzzy. He was still having dreams that he couldn't explain, it had, in fact, been a nightmare that had driven him awake.

"There are more than enough unimprinted chips for your friends. We'll need to start training them immediately," she said, removing four smaller silver boxes and slipping them into a jacket pocket.

"They're still with their families," he said. So this was how it was going to be. Fine. He could do this. "They still have one more year of regular schooling here on Earth."

"I believe Zordon's emphasis was placed on training," she said coolly, leading the way to one of the upper access tubes.

"Karone wants them to lead as normal a life as possible," he said, desperately searching for a rationalization, and realizing that he didn't believe in it himself. He was struck by his inability to read her, to see even a trace of the girl he knew, the girl he remembered.

"You and I both know that that is impossible."

That stopped him cold. He couldn't think of anything to say to that, and chose to change the subject instead. "I think that, at this point, you are the most qualified person to train us."

"Are you sure?" she asked quietly, and a shared memory flashed through their bond.

_ The smoking ruins of Kerova's capitol city went by in a blur as he ran after Sianna's murderer. He paid them little mind, all of his attention was on the retreating figure of the killer. Her lithe form disappeared behind a fallen statue, and he followed. The barest sense of danger was all the warning he got, but it was enough. Shrapnel from a grenade exploded around him, but he was able to shield himself against the worst of it. A few shards dug into the side of his left arm, but he ignored the pain. When he stood, she was waiting for him._

_ They fought, while around them the battle for Kerova raged on. Finally, his opponent made the tiny mistake he had been waiting for, and he seized his opportunity._

The memory – her side of it – cut off there. His continued. The victory had been hollow. At the time, he hadn't been able to explain it. He had thought Ketana and the others long dead. All that had remained for him was Sianna, his one link to that past; and the nameless assassin that had killed that link, the assassin he had been obsessively tracking for a year. Even as he stumbled back to Sianna's body, having avenged her and many others, the rebels he'd been fighting with for the last three years were pushing back the enemy – and yet he knew that it had all been in vain. Something had gone terribly, terribly wrong. He remembered kneeling next to Sianna's body as the first cheers went up, when a great wave of energy had suddenly burst from the Imperial Palace, engulfing everything in its path. He had surrendered to it, and the world had gone dark. When he awoke he had no memory of any of it, instead he knew that his sister had been kidnapped as a toddler and his best friend lay critically wounded in the med bay after taking a hit meant for him.

"I see you still carry the scars," she said, nodding at the faint white lines that traced across the top of his arm. He looked up at her, still reeling.

"I..." was the only thing he could force out of his tight throat. Seconds ticked by, his body paralyzed with shock, his mind detached, analyzing what had just happened. Dimly, he was aware of her watching him, arms crossed, face impassive.

"I am sorry, this was not the way that I wanted to bring this up," she said finally, and for a split second, he thought he saw his Ketana again. "But yes, I was the one who, among other things... I killed Sianna."

"And I murdered you," he whispered hoarsely.

"No," she said, sharply, her words bringing his mind back into focus. "You killed Sianna's murderer. You killed a woman who had..." her voice caught, and for a brief moment, he could see guilt and pain in her eyes. She looked away, taking a deep breath before continuing. When she looked back, her gaze was even, and the familiar things he had been searching for were gone. "You killed someone who had done unspeakable things."

"You were under their spell," he said, desperate to take some of that pain away. He couldn't believe that she was capable of such things.

Offering no explanation, without looking back, she walked away.

She wasn't, was she?

He leaned back and against the wall, and slid to the floor, still trying to pull his mind together. A short, bitter laugh escaped from his lips when he found himself thinking about how they weren't going to be able to repair the communications array rather than anything that Ketana had just revealed. He was still having trouble finding a unity between the two halves of himself, the one that had spent the last two years living in a lie, and the one that had spent the three years before living through hell.

Certain that in his current mental state he would do more harm than good with repair work, Andros closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, slipping into a deep trance. He had to find his balance again.

_ Kerova faded as the Viator limped away, filled to capacity with survivors. Distress calls had already been sent out, the surviving rangers working hard to contact each other and set up a safe meeting place. Andros sat in silence on the bridge, as other moved quietly around him._

_ They were gone. They were all gone._


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two: "Oops..."

"Hey, Ashley!" Cassie said, running to catch up with her friend. It was always surreal to be home again, as if nothing had happened.

"Hey," Ashley said, visibly preoccupied.

"You okay?" Cassie asked, already bracing herself for the response.

"I think so. I don't know, it's been a weird couple of days," Ashley said, far more unconcerned than Cassie had expected. A very disconcerting image slipped into her mind, one of a similar tone of voice in Ketana's speech.

"And how. I guess being a—" Cassie looked around, making sure that no one else was listening too carefully, and deciding against saying too much, "—a you know, makes for some weird weeks. Though this one is a little bit weirder than usual, I'll admit. I'm not sure if we'll ever get all of these alternate time lines fixed."

"Yeah," Ashley said, looking very much as if she wanted to be somewhere else. This was very much unlike her, and Cassie was starting to worry.

"Oh, hey! I forgot to ask you, how'd your date with Andros go?" Cassie asked, desperate to find something more pleasant to talk about.

"Yeah, I suppose the getting captured by their 'old friend' and them all of a sudden getting older and having new memories might have made you forget about something like that," Ashley said. At Cassie's exasperated look, she relented, a near forgotten excitement welling up. "It was fantastic. He was so sweet, so attentive. He said he really liked me, and wanted us to start spending more time together. He even..." Ashley blushed, and lowered her voice. "He even kissed me again."

"Really?" Cassie asked, relieved to see Ashley excited again – and not making the correlation between that kiss and Ketana's poisoning with Lover's Bane. "That's wonderful!"

Ashley nodded, but the joy was already fading from her eyes. "I just..."

"What?"

"I don't know. How much of that is going to change now that... that he's changed? And now that she's here?" Ashley asked, looking away.

"Ash, he can't have changed that much. Besides, I think Ketana and Tyren might have had a thing; he seemed real protective of her. I don't think that Andros and Ketana were anything more than friends," Cassie said, and immediately regretted it. She didn't know if Andros and Ketana had had a relationship, didn't know how Sianna fit into the picture. It had just seemed to be the thing to say at the time.

"But what about that Sianna Corman Zordon mentioned?"

"Oh, that was probably Tyren's sister or something. Everything will be fine," Cassie said, and anything else she might have said was cut off by the bell. "Oh no, we're going to be late!"

Ashley nodded and ran off. Cassie watched her go, a slight feeling of guilt waving over her. She had wanted to reassure her friend, but she was suddenly afraid she had said too much.

"Miss Chan! You're late!"

"Oops..."

* * *

As soon as their classes were over the four Earthborn drove to the mountains, as the ship's teleportation system was still down. They told their parents about all sorts of extracurricular engagements, all the old familiar lies. Their parents, now as always, trusted them enough not to check up on them, but the constant lies made all of them more than a little uncomfortable.

Andros, Karone, and Zhane were already out in the clearing around the ship, sparring and playing around. A little unsure, the other four went to meet them.

"Hey guys!" Karone said, ducking and running away from Zhane. "How was school?"

"Great," TJ said.

"How's the ship?" Carlos asked.

"Much better," Zhane said, chasing after Karone. "We should have it back—waugh!" he was cut off when Karone stopped suddenly, turned, and took him down.

"It should be up and running within the week," Andros finished, once everyone had stopped laughing.

"You're here," Ketana said, from the edge of the landing ramp, holding four small, unmarked boxes. Despite the heat, she wore exactly what she had when she was Shadow, something that made all of the others uncomfortable. The only differences were that the hood was down, revealing tightly braided brown hair, and there was no mask – at least, not a tangible one.

Silence fell over the clearing. There was a great deal of uncertainty about where she stood with any of them, and none of the Earthborn was sure how to approach her. She chose to make the first move, focusing on the task at hand. "We will train you in the tradition that we were trained in, as rangers of the Kerovan Empire. Understand that when we are in the ring, all personal problems are left behind. We are your instructors – nothing more, nothing less. There is no world outside of the fight."

"Take these," Karone said, taking the boxes from Ketana and distributing them. "Take the chip from inside and place it over your left wrist."

The four Earth rangers did so, and barely managed not to jump when the chip implanted itself into their flesh.

"These are your new morphers," Karone continued. "In a moment, they will bond to your mental patterns, and determine what style of armor and weapons suit you best. After the initial imprint, it will only take a focused thought to summon your armor or your weapons when you want them."

"But we're not psychic," Cassie said.

"No, but you are rangers who haven't yet been trained to the extent of your abilities," Karone said. "We can bring you up to our level soon enough."

"Actually, they say that Earthborn rangers can be better than any of the other races, with the proper training," Zhane said.

"Really?" TJ asked.

"Why do you think Earth has been the focal point of the attacks for all these years?" Andros asked. "The Council couldn't risk any of you taking your focus off of Earth, or having the time to properly train."

Suddenly, armor appeared on their bodies and weapons in their hands.

"Cool!" TJ said, twirling his new sword. Carlos had received a staff, Cassie a short katana and bow, and Ashley had twin sai.

"What was wrong with our old morphers and weapons?" Ashley asked.

"The new weapons are specifically designed for your physical characteristics and abilities. And your old morphing sequence took too long, that's part of what made it so easy for me to take you down," Ketana said, completely matter of fact in mentioning that she had easily defeated all of them in single combat. "Now, let's get down to business—"

"So you wouldn't have been able to take us down if we'd had our armor?" Ashley asked.

"I believe I said 'part.' We'll begin—"

"So you're afraid to face us when we can actually see you," Ashley said. "Give me back my star slinger and we'll see how easy it is to take me down."

"Ash, don't push this," Andros said quietly.

"You want to fight me because I broke your hands, not because you wish to learn. I am sorry for your hands, but if I had not broken them, it would have cost all of you your lives. They are healed."

"I won't fight together with a traitor," Ashley snapped.

"You called me friend once," Karone said awkwardly. "Yet you could accuse me of also being a traitor."

"I—"

"Zhane. Be a dear and do your old morphing sequence for me," Ketana said. Zhane nodded, and started the sequence. Before it was halfway finished Ketana was on him, knocking the morpher away and taking him down. His eyes were wide as he looked up at her from the point of the sword that had appeared in her hand. "Do you doubt me now?"

"All right, you've made your point," TJ said, an edge in his voice.

"I don't think she has," Ashley said, who had taken the interim to morph into her old armor. Ketana pushed Zhane out of harm's way, and then she took Ashley down before the other girl had time to attack.

"Again. Try your new weapons and armor," she said, and Ashley was stunned and angry enough to comply. This time Ketana allowed her reactions to be slower, letting Ashley adjust to her new weapons, allowing her to learn from each encounter. Ashley didn't recognize what was going on, but those on the sidelines did, and didn't interfere. Finally, when Ashley was starting to come up to speed, Ketana very deliberately left a hole open in her defenses, and Ashley took the opportunity.

"No, Ashley, don't!" Andros yelled, but it was too late. Her right sai came screaming for Ketana's throat. At the last second, Ketana blocked, grabbing Ashley's wrist and holding the weapon close enough to her own throat to draw a thin line of blood. The anger fell from Ashley eyes, and she tried to break away. Ketana held her easily, locking eyes with her. The horror in the younger girl's eyes was more than enough to tell her that her point had been made.

"First rule of combat," she said, letting Ashley go and turning to the rest. "Someone has to lose. Just make sure that someone isn't you."

"Who do you think you are?" Ashley asked, trying to save face. She pulled away, awkwardly cleaning the sai on the edge of her gauntlet.

"That's enough," Andros said sharply, stepping forward before Ketana had the chance to answer. "Pair up, Karone and Carlos, Zhane and TJ, Cassie and Ashley. Ketana—"

She was already gone. Gritting his teeth, he turned back to his friends. "What are you waiting for? Let's go."

"You're letting her get away with this?" Ashley asked, furious.

"With what, Ash?" Cassie asked, not meeting her friend's eyes. "She didn't... do anything wrong. I mean, not exactly."

"How can you say that?" Carlos asked. "She could have killed Ashley!"

"Ashley could have killed her," TJ said, eyes narrowing, as if he were trying to see past the situation.

"Does that really matter? She can't be killed," Ashley said. "I can."

"Just because she can't be killed doesn't mean she can't feel pain," Andros said, quietly enough that only Karone, who was standing next him, heard. The argument began to escalate.

"All right, that's enough!" Karone yelled, and everyone fell silent. "Neither of you were in the right just now. Fighting about it isn't going to help anything."

"Tell that to her," Ashley said.

"I will. But she's not the one who needs to be training right now. Pair up," Karone repeated. Ashley started to protest. "_Now_, Ashley."


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three: "Time that we don't have."

Karone hung back as the others went into the ship, talking. She watched as Zhane darted between conversations, checking on them without looking as if he was checking on them. She had missed him, and as she watched him, a smile played at her lips.

"Nice to see you smiling again," Andros said. "On a similar note, it's nice to see you at all."

Her smile widened as they embraced. In all the confusion there hadn't been much time for a reunion. "I've missed you."

"I missed you too," he said, and there was more than two years' intensity in those words.

"You were alone for those three years, weren't you?" she asked gently.

"I worked with Sianna and a lot of other familiar faces, but it wasn't the same."

"What was it like?"

He didn't answer; suddenly the grass at his feet had become incredibly interesting.

"That good, hmm?" she said, holding up a hand when he looked back to her. "You don't have to tell me anything. I know there are things that I haven't told Zhane."

Andros looked as if he were about to say something, then fell silent, waiting for her to talk.

Karone took a deep breath. "When Darkonda removed the implant, the first thing I remembered was seeing Zhane go down at Kerova. I didn't know what to think. I knew – well, felt – that he was still alive, but I couldn't help but feel alone. I can't imagine what it was like for you and Ketana during these last years," she said, then stopped and looked away, remembering. "I did some terrible things when I was Astronema, and I had some terrible things done to me. It was amazing to me that people could forgive me and accept me when all that they knew of me was that I was your sister. Zhane forgave me even when I was still technically evil. He's forgiven me for a lot of things. But there are still things that I haven't told him, because I'm afraid."

"Of what?" Andros asked, sensing that she was trying to make a point.

"Of his reaction. I'm afraid that something I've done or experienced will change in the way that he looks at me," she said, absentmindedly scuffing her boot against the ground. "And yet, it's easy for me to forget what he's been through, and that's exactly what he wants. He will do anything to protect the people he loves."

"So will Ketana," Andros said, so quietly that Karone was not entirely sure that she had heard him correctly. "I'm worried about her," he said, louder.

"So am I. I don't think I ever seen anyone channel that much power. And..."

"I've never seen a ranger take that much joy in fighting," he added.

"Do you still love her?" Karone asked, regretting the words as soon as she had said them.

"I... It's been a long time."

"She's put up a lot of walls," Karone said, the response sounding hollow in her ears.

"I can't say that I can completely understand her anymore, but I do know what I've seen, and what it's done to me. She... needs time," Andros finished lamely, as though he had started to say more.

"Time that we don't have."

"I don't know," he said, sighing, and they looked out over the forest, a comfortable silence settling between them.

"I know that it helped me to come back into contact with all of you, to be shown that I didn't have to lead that life anymore. Maybe that's what Ketana needs." Karone smiled, and poked her brother playfully. "Don't look so worried. We'll get her back," she said, and started for the ship.

"Maybe..."

* * *

"Ketana?" Zhane asked tentatively. She was lying half-hidden under a bridge console, finishing some rewiring. Zordon had repaired the major structural damage, but there was still a lot to do.

"I shouldn't have left, I'm being horrible to Ashley, and we're not going to get anywhere if I'm always running away. You don't have to say it," she said, rolling out.

"Uh, yeah. Actually, I was just coming to tell you that dinner was ready. But hey, good for you if you came up with that on your own," Zhane said, grinning, holding out a hand. She just stared at him. "You missed me, admit it."

The ghost of a real smile flickered across her face. "You just keep telling yourself that, Zhane."

As they walked to the mess hall, Zhane watched Ketana out of the corner of his eye, trying to reconcile this silent, somber warrior to the friend he had once had. He still wasn't entirely sure what to make of the afternoon's events. He was even less sure about her refusal to take the hand he had offered. Aside from their welcome embrace, he hadn't seen her touch anyone or allow anyone to touch her at all.

It was the same for all of his friends: Karone carried the guilt of being Astronema, Andros the pain years of nonstop fighting, Ketana carried the effects of the hell she had been through. Then there was him: no personal demons, no shrouded history, no memories beyond the last year of the gap. He was just... there. On the outside, trying to figure out what not to say and what not to do to touch a nerve, sympathizing with the Earthborn who were just as in the dark as he.

* * *

"Dinner is served," Cassie said, just as Zhane and Ketana came in.

Ashley stopped Ketana by the door, after a bit of prompting from Cassie. "Er... I'm sorry about today."

Ketana shrugged, impassive. "I should not have baited you."

"Truce?" Ashley asked

"Deal."

It was an awkward truce, but one that held through dinner, as the rangers started to find common ground again.

"So, I'm kind of assuming you have some different stories to tell about your childhood, if Karone's only been Astronema for the past two years," Cassie said.

"Yeah, sorry about the constantly changing histories. Everything should stay the same form now on. I think." Zhane said. "I hope."

"This is the true reality," Ketana said. She sat a little apart from them, but she had forced herself to stay in the room when dinner was over. They were aware of her presence, but no one took notice of her unless she wanted them to. She didn't even realize that she was using this particular form of psychic misdirection until halfway through the meal, it was such an ingrained habit. Even when she did notice she didn't break it. Andros would notice if she did, and then there would be too many questions to answer. "There are no more orbs."

"For which we are all eternally grateful," Karone said. "Let's see here, where to start..."

"It was a dark and stormy night—"

"Shut up, dear," Karone said to Zhane. "Okay, so this joker here is originally from Dae Etha, a planet not that far from Kerova."

"My parents were rangers, and the military leaders of my home planet, but they died in an accident when I was really young. I have a much older brother, also a ranger, who took over their job, but didn't think he was the best choice to raise me. He sent me to live with his instructors, who just happened to be Andros and Karone's parents. We grew up together," Zhane said.

"Our parents were – are – the joint heads of the Ranger Academy on Kerova, and close friends of the Imperial family. Ketana spent a lot of time with us growing up," Andros said. "We all developed a bond early on, a very strong one."

"That video you've seen of me getting kidnapped is actually pretty accurate," Karone said. "I was kidnapped by Darkonda when I was little, but the bond between the four of us was so strong that the others were able to sense were they had taken me."

_The ship rocked violently, and Ketana fell. Andros ran to her side, taking her hand. He started crying when he saw the blood on his friend's forehead. Some of his tears fell onto her, before a ranger came and picked her up._

"The three of us went with the rescue team, and if we weren't completely in awe of rangers before, we certainly were after that. I went into the Academy first, as soon as I was old enough, at age seven. The next year Zhane joined, then Karone," Andros said.

"You were seven?" Cassie asked incredulously. "Isn't that a little young?"

"Not really," Ketana said. "You can join at any time, but most rangers know what they are going to be at an early age. I didn't come to the Academy until age nine, but not for lack of trying. It was about that time that the rumors about the Council returning surfaced. My parents wanted to keep me under constant guard, but knew that I couldn't be kept that way forever. They decided that being surrounded by rangers was the safest thing, and let me enter the Academy under an assumed name. My sibs were too young to care about always being locked away, and at any rate they never showed any interest in being rangers. I had received enough private training to be allowed to join Andros' class."

"That's the year we all met Tyren. He's – was – is?" Zhane said, looking at Ketana.

Regret flickered across her face. "Was. He is dead." A look passed between the four friends, and each raised their glass in silent toast. A moment later the four Earthborn did as well.

"Yes, well, Tyren was a few years older than us. We weren't on the best of terms at first, because Darkonda had captured Karone for a group of rebel Cerosians, protesting Ceros' recent alliance with the Empire. Anyway, he was finishing his last year, which required that he spend some time teaching, and he was soon our favorite teacher. He left to be a field officer, and our first year out on the Viator he was our commanding officer, then when he left to marry Sianna, Andros took over. It was a grand time, Karone and I had just graduated the Academy," Zhane said, smiling playfully at Karone. None of them noticed the look that passed between Ashley and Cassie at the mention of Sianna and Tyren's marriage. "She graduated a year early, and of course she never ever bragged about it."

"Of course not," Karone said sweetly. "We had about two years, running around the galaxy like little maniacs. There were always enough minor monsters to keep us happy, enough to challenge us but never enough to put us in any sort of real danger. We did get quite the reputation, though, and towards the end we were going up against some not so minor foes. It was..." she trailed off, a wistful smile on her face. "Then... well."

Ketana stood and went to go wash dishes, trying to distance herself further from the conversation without appearing rude.

"Then there was the mess five years ago. I was, I don't know, I guess banished isn't exactly the right word, but I was banished and Karone was frozen, then Karone was unfrozen and I was frozen, and, well, you know the rest," Zhane said.

"Not quite. What were you two doing during those three years that Karone and Zhane weren't, uh, present?" Carlos asked, looking first at Ketana's back, then at Andros.

Andros took a deep breath, trying to decide how much he was going to tell them at this point in time. "I spent most of the time with the few Kerovans who were left, with the resistance. Then the first orb was shattered, and that's about when I met you guys."

"What about you?" Ashley asked.

"I was captured," Ketana said smoothly, turning around, but concentrating on the dish she was drying. "I don't really remember any of it," she lied. "It's all something of a blur. Zhane, why don't you tell them about the time you were almost kicked out of the Academy?"

"Okay, so this one night, shortly before graduation..."


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four: Things Left Unsaid

Ketana hadn't said anything the rest of the night, melting into the shadows and continuing to be present without truly being noticed. She listened, she watched, unable to simply enjoy the company of others, always analyzing and searching for weaknesses instead. She could clear the room in thirty seconds, as long as she got Andros first. It sickened her that she could think of these things so easily. As the evening wound down, she took the first opportunity she could to slip away without appearing to be rude. Andros had made a move to follow her, but had been intercepted by Ashley.

Staying on the ship meant that someone might find her, so she went outside.

As she left the ship, she was hit by a blast of humidity, and welcomed the heat. She was always cold, and seldom felt truly warm. The valley was a self-contained rainforest, and it was just starting to come alive as the sun set. Somewhere in the distance, a creature screamed as it fell prey to the natural cycle. Most of the animals in the valley were bound to the power, but they were all still hunters, and woe to anything that might wander into their path. The scent of the night blooming flowers reached her, and she ran.

She ducked and dodged around and over trees, rocks and other obstacles. None of the branches touched her; she didn't disturb so much as a leaf unless she chose to. When running wasn't enough, she started going over the trees and rocks, vaulting and jumping and climbing as fast as she could. Shadows ran beside her, real and imagined; she couldn't outrun the demons of her past.

She ran to the edge of the valley, to the highest of the stone walls protecting it. It wasn't enough. She didn't even slow as she approached the sheer rock face, actually running up the first few feet until she found handholds. Somewhere on the approach, she had removed her gloves, tucking them into her belt so she could feel the stone under her fingers. It still held the heat from the day's sun. The rough edges bit into her hands, the slight pain reminding her that she was alive.

She climbed steadily until she reached the top, and the holographic emitters that made it appear as if the dome of the valley was actually just another desert hill surrounding Angel Grove. From inside, one could look up and see the night sky clearly. From outside, one could hike to the top of the "mountain" and never know there was anything under foot, unless one knew the proper passwords. With a glance back at the ship, she phased through the barrier, running to the top of the tallest mountain nearby. The air was drier out here, but almost as warm. She was grateful for this; the high mountains of Ceros had been a freezing hell for her. A slight breeze, carrying with it the scent of the city and a trace of the far off ocean encircled her, and she shivered. The sun had gone down, and lights flickered off and on, as the Earthborn went about their nightly business. Every once and awhile the sound of a siren reached her, as rangers of a different kind hunted their prey.

An outcrop nearby beckoned to her. It allowed full view of the city and the mountains around her, while also providing adequate cover if she were attacked. The adrenaline from her run began to fade, and the weight of those things from which she ran fell down on her. She sank to her knees. The gloves went back on, another piece of the indelible mask she had created for herself. Someday she would have to tell them – they were her team now, she owed them that much. Someday they would learn the truth, and it would be best if they learned it all from her.

Above all, she owed some things to Andros, and those would be the hardest to pay.

The idea of running forever was becoming more and more attractive. But before she could truly contemplate this thought, she could sense Karone approaching.

"You're out late," Karone said, sitting next to her.

"And now, the lecture," Ketana said.

"You already know you were wrong. And that, among other things, is bothering you, or you wouldn't be out here."

They sat there for a long moment, only guessing at what the other wasn't saying.

"When I broke free on Ceros – truly broke free, not just doing what the Phoenix wanted of me – I hurt several of my teammates. I wanted them to be prepared, I wanted them to be able to take me down if I ever went rogue again," Ketana said, her voice low and carefully controlled. This story she could tell. The others could wait.

"I'm sure—"

"I put one of them into intensive care for nearly two months. We were training, and I just... I was trying to prove a point, but Darus wasn't ready, he just... wasn't ready," Ketana said, eyes focused on something that couldn't be seen. "Ashley did well enough."

"And in this training you left yourself open, instead of attacking her. I can't say it's exactly an improvement." Karone floundered, sounding desperate for the perfect thing to say, and just not finding it.

"I don't believe that it is the best idea for me to be here."

"Why not?"

Ketana looked up at the unfamiliar night sky, wondering how the other small pockets of resistance were doing. Her thoughts quested towards one particular cell, but she silenced them quickly. "I could do more out there—"

"Where you think can't hurt any of us? Uh-unh. No way."

"Karone—" Ketana said, starting to tell her friend that she had misunderstood. But that statement had hit a little closer to home than she had realized. Some day she would have to admit to herself that she was terrified of hurting any of them, here or elsewhere.

"I'm afraid that you don't get to win this argument, Ketana. Your solution does hurt people. It hurts me, and Zhane, because we lose our best friend. It hurts the Earthborn because they lose somebody who might be able to actually help them save their planet. You hurt Andros because he needs you." Ketana tried to interrupt, but Karone wouldn't let her. "And that's a hurt that we could all get over. There's one person you're overlooking here in your grand plan to run away, and that's you. You need us if you're going to start healing."

"So you can be there for me to hurt? Thanks, but no."

"And what is leaving going to accomplish? The minute you are alone, they're going to come for you. Do you want to be Shadow again? Do you want to force me, or Zhane, or Andros to have to come after you? Do you want us to have to kill you, and I mean really, truly kill you?"

Ketana didn't respond, and Karone knew that she had won at least a tiny bit of ground.

"It isn't going to be easy," Karone said gently. "But as I've said before, we're here for you. Will you stay with us?"

Duty. It called to her. Part of her answered to that, as somewhere, behind all of the masks, she was still a ranger. But that clear call awakened something else buried in her mind.

It had begun.

"For now."

* * *

"You really should sleep," DECA said.

"The humanoid body can survive on three hours of sleep per night. I'm not entirely humanoid anymore, am I?" Ketana asked.

"Despite your elevated powers you are still Kerovan, Lady Ketana," Alpha said. "This pace will kill you."

"That's not much of a worry, now is it?" she said. Neither computer nor robot answered, and Ketana took that to mean she had won this round. Both were programmed to ensure the health of their rangers, but the rangers were allowed free will. Ketana preferred to work in silence at any rate and she ignored the feeling that she was being watched. Demons, real and imagined, had followed her for years. There was always something in the shadows waiting for her.

She was grateful to be left alone, for being so meant that she couldn't continue to hurt the people around her. The look on Andros' face when she had told him that she had been the one he had killed two years ago at Kerova had haunted her through the day. It wasn't until two years after her capture that she had made her debut as the Council's favorite assassin, and her first assignment had been the destruction of the remaining Kerovan rebels. For a year, she had faced off against Sianna, but Andros had been her focus. Unknowing, they had chased each other with a deadly passion, but had not come into full contact until Ketana had killed Sianna at the second battle for Kerova. She had come close to catching him very early on, but that close call seemed to have shaken him. As the year went on, he became an increasingly dangerous adversary. Her only joy, however twisted, had been in chasing him. Andros had been the only person to kill her in single combat, after her first two years of "training."

If he hadn't killed her, Zordon would not have been able to break through her mental conditioning to allow her the chance to break the first spell. If he hadn't killed her, she would still be the twisted killer she had become.

She had long since come to terms with that day, and never blamed Andros for what he had done. Immediately after that battle she'd been taken in by an underground cell, and there had finally begun her healing process. A year later she had been forced to leave in order to protect the cell, but she had learned much from them. Already, she was breaking down the walls and dealing with the last year instead of pushing it all away. It was by no means a perfect solution; her outburst against Ashley proved that. Her conversation with Karone had been a healing of sorts, but one that was dearly bought. Zordon had asked her to stay here, and stay she would. It still didn't mean that she was any less frustrated with her own inaction, or her own penchant for hurting the people around her.

She felt, rather than heard him enter the room. It still bothered her that he could get so close to her without her knowing.

"Something wrong, Red?" she asked, turning around and leaning against the console, crossing her arms in what she hoped was a casual manner. She couldn't bring herself to call him by his name. It conjured too many memories of someone that didn't exist anymore.

"Can't sleep. Looks like I'm not alone in that," Andros said, coming over to face her. She couldn't look at him, but felt his eyes on her. An awkward silence fell between them, and she made herself meet his eyes. There were the good memories, of course, before everything had happened, and these had been her refuge for years. They could never go back.

"I don't really need to, much," she said, with the sneaking suspicion that he had heard her earlier conversation with DECA.

"You've probably cut our repair time in half with all your work. I feel guilty."

"It needed doing," she said, going over and sitting at one of the wall consoles, pretending to work.

"And it's keeping you busy so you don't have to face anyone," he said, staying put.

"You're not the one to be accusing someone of that."

He smiled. "Point. So what are you going to do when all this is finished and you need something else as an excuse to always be working?"

"You have plans for me, Red?" she asked, turning to face him.

"I do. Teach me."

"Beg pardon?"

"Strategy, demolition, subterfuge. The things you've learned that they didn't teach at the Academy. Everything."

"Everything?" she asked, a little more suggestively than she had intended. As far as she could tell, he was still innocent enough to not catch the double meaning.

"Everything," he said, with a look of resolve that she had dearly missed.

"All right," she said, surprising them both. "We start tomorrow, at midnight."

He nodded and fell silent, and for a moment, she thought he might have left. All of a sudden, there was a hand on her shoulder, and someone whispering "Good night, Ketana."

Memories waved over her, and for a split second, she lost all sense of where she was and what she was doing. It was only a moment, but long enough to bat Andros' hand away with more force than she had intended. Suddenly she was facing him, gathering to attack. She stopped suddenly, disoriented. He stared at her in silence.

A thousand things flashed before her, apologies, explanations, confessions. All were left unsaid.


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five: "I'm just afraid that I'm in over my head."

That afternoon Zhane met the Earthborn at the bottom of the landing ramp. "Come up to the bridge," he said, turning before they had a chance to question him. He led them immediately to the bridge, where Karone, Ketana and Andros were waiting.

"Tell them the good news!" Karone said, and everyone turned their focus to Ketana.

"I have the communications array back up," she said. "We've contacted the Kerovan rebels; they're working on repairs as well, but should be able to keep the rest of the universe covered for us. The Cerosians are free, the Aquitarians and the Triforians are recovering quickly, and we've regained contact with a few more allies further out in the galaxy. We can focus exclusively on protecting Earth. Intelligence... what there is of it... doesn't think that the enemy's tactics will change that much: warlords will be sent to each major planet, all with an eye for conquest, and the heads of any rangers they can find. Special focus will be placed on Earth, but they're not sure who we will be facing yet. It's probably not any of those that you've seen before."

"What about the Phantom ranger?" Cassie asked.

"The Phantom...?" The edge of Ketana's lips quirked. "He's quite well, and sends his regards."

"Good," Cassie said, relieved. A tiny hint of jealousy crossed across TJ's eyes, and was gone.

"It's nice to have allies in the universe again," Zhane said, and everyone nodded.

"Will they be sending anyone here?" Cassie asked.

"Only if we get into serious trouble. The rebels are going to be stretched thin enough as it is. The Kerovan border planets that are left are completely unprotected, which was fine when they were reduced to barely post-industrial technology, but now that the last orb is broken they have become very attractive targets. They will need more help than we will," she said, packing up her tools.

"Uh... thanks for doing all of this for us, Ketana," Cassie said.

"Needed doing," she said, nodding politely and slipping away.

"Has she always been this friendly?" TJ asked.

"She's been through a lot," Karone said.

"That excuse isn't going to last forever," Ashley said.

"Probably not," Ketana said from the doorway, smoothly ducking past them to retrieve a forgotten tool. She was gone again before any of them could think of anything to say.

"Has she always been this creepy?" Carlos asked, once they were all sure that she was gone.

* * *

"Okay, spill it," Cassie said, as she and Ashley drove home from the practice session. "What's up?"

"Huh?"

"Something's bothering you, what is it?" Cassie asked, counting on the fact that she wasn't facing Ashley directly to make her friend comfortable enough to talk.

"It's Andros. I haven't really talked to him lately, and I'm not sure—"

"Don't worry too much, as soon as things settle down, I'm sure—"

"Stop making excuses for other people, Cassie, and let me talk," Ashley said. "I just... I don't know what to do. Andros was the first guy that ever showed any sort of real interest in _me_, not just my looks, and it's hard to just let that go. I really, really like him, Cassie. And the new him, the true him, is even better. I'm just afraid that I'm in over my head."

* * *

TJ's communicator went off just as he finally drifted off to sleep. Taking a full course load and increased training was exhausting, but the stress was keeping him awake. He was so tired that it took him a moment to remember what he was supposed to say. Even then, it came out a bit mangled. "'Lo?"

"TJ, it's Karone. We have news. You decent to transport?"

"What time is it?"

"Probably best not to know. We'll give you five. Out."

TJ sighed, and rolled out of bed, grabbing whatever clothes where close at hand. Yet another meeting to smile and nod through, and take over jobs that weren't his. As far as he could tell, none of his friends were even bothering to look after each other, or the team. He'd been overly paranoid of late, but someone had to.

* * *

Everyone was bleary eyed and disheveled, unused to being up at this hour. Ketana, however, was fully dressed and alert, a little pale, but no more emotional than usual.

"I am sorry to have pulled you from your beds, but I just heard from my Kerovan contacts. They have new information for us," Ketana said, bracing herself. "They know who is coming for us."

"Who?" Cassie asked, when Ketana did not immediately continue.

"Ecliptor. But more specifically his son, Dharin, will be in command," she said, ignoring the sudden and rather pointed look Andros shot her way. "He is a renegade, a former ranger that the four of us trained with. His strategy will be, at first, to send monsters at us one at a time, like the last few. He will use them to gauge our reactions, how well we work together as a team, and will always be looking for weaknesses that he can exploit. It will appear that we will always be close to beating him, and this will be a carefully constructed lie. Each victory will result in the appearance of a more dangerous foe, or an unanticipated trap."

"Sounds like you know this guy pretty well," TJ said. "How did you beat him?"

"I never did," she said, completely unemotional. Her words sent chills down everyone's spines.

"Now that the teleporters are back up we'll be keeping constant locks on all of you. We have new technology that will allow us to pull you out of anywhere, class, a crowded street, your home, wherever, without anyone realizing that you're gone," Karone said, easily stepping in to take over.

"And how do you pull that trick off?" Carlos asked.

"There's a long technical explanation that Karone here could give you, but that's best left to when it's not, you know, 2 a.m.," Zhane said.

"Good point."

"We'll continue training as usual, there's no need to change your regular routines just yet," Andros said. "We just thought that you all should know."

"Yeah, it'll be nice to be kept in the loop for once," Ashley said, glaring at Ketana.

"We're trying," Karone said smoothly. "It'll all come together guys."

"Keep alert. Expect attacks in your school. Expect attacks against your families. Dharin will hold nothing sacred, and will not show any mercy to anyone, not even to children," Ketana said, as they started to file out.

"Isn't she being a little extreme?" Cassie asked.

"Somehow I don't think so..." TJ said, and anything else he might have said was cut off by the closing door.

Andros looked over at Ketana, once they were alone. She toyed absentmindedly with the edge of a data pad, eyes unseeing. "I don't suppose we'll be practicing tonight, then," he said casually. Most of their evening had been taken up contacting allies. Midnight had long since passed.

"No. You should sleep."

"And so should you," he said, as it was obvious that she had no intention of doing so.

"You're as bad as Alpha," she said, standing and stretching. She yawned.

"You really should—"

"I'll be fine," she snapped, starting for the door. She stopped, and looked back at him guiltily. "I'm sorry. I just—"

"Don't like being told what to do."

"No. You know what I've done, and yet you still care whether I'm sleeping or not," she said, after a moment's hesitation. The corner of her mouth twitched upward. "It is difficult to wallow in oh-so-comfortable self-pity when the people you have wronged so easily forgive you."

He watched her for a moment, pleased to see that she met his eyes. He could remember what he had felt from her on the beach clearly, and this gave him conviction in his next words. "You've already forgiven me for killing you. Things done while a captive of the enemy cannot be held against you," he said, "especially after your actions on Ceros, and more recently in saving us."

"Wise words," she said. "Have you gotten around to forgiving yourself yet?"

"No," he said, smiling slightly. "That would be much harder than forgiving you."

"I wish I could say that you hadn't changed," she said, and he wondered if the words had come out more wistful than she intended.

"I could say the same about you."

"Things have changed," she said, finally looking away. "We can't pretend that they haven't."

"Neither can we pretend..." he trailed off, _'that we're not still drawn to each other,'_ was the end of that sentence, and it couldn't be said right now. She looked at him, appearing relieved when he stopped speaking. For a moment, she looked as if she might reach for him.

She turned away. "Good night. We'll start tomorrow."

He watched her go, wondering if he would ever see the Ketana he had loved again.

* * *

Ketana leaned her head against the shower tiles, as the hot water cascaded over her back. She wondered how long Andros would try to stay tied to the past. 


	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six: "Isn't that a little... unfair?"

_She woke at dawn, alone on a rock in the middle of the desert. Hearing the sounds of battle from far away, she moved toward it. It was farther than she had imagined. It was nearly nightfall when she was finally close enough to make out figures on the field, a few flashes of familiar style of armor. A ranger battle cry reached her ears, and she quickened her pace._

_" No!" She ran for them, trying to fight her way through the throng._

_Monsters advanced on her. _

_ She was dead before she could even see the rangers._

* * *

Each of the rangers had gone through the day with a little more energy, despite having been woken up at a terribly early hour. They were more alert, looking for signs of trouble, analyzing everything with a more critical eye. Ketana's – cool, unemotional, professional Ketana's – reaction to this new threat had made a deep impact on all of them. When they saw her waiting on the field with the others, their anxiety jumped another notch.

"I have been perhaps a little unfair in my treatment of you. I do this only because I want to see you succeed. The enemy that you are about to face is like nothing that you or any other ranger has seen before. In order to take Kerova down, the Council had to put certain limits on their own forces as well. These limits are now gone. We are going to train you hard, physically and mentally. If at any time you want to walk away, you can. If at any time you feel uncomfortable with the direction of the training, talk to us," Ketana said. "All right?"

No one said anything, but the determined set of their jaws gave Ketana hope.

"You've had a few days to get used to your new gear and to start working together as a team again," Karone said, once every one had made their obligatory greetings. "Before we try to integrate two new members into the team, Ketana and I would like to see how well you are working together. Any objections?"

"So, what, the six of us against the two of you?" Carlos asked, a little skeptical.

"Yep. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, for us, but isn't that a little... unfair?" Cassie asked.

"We'll go easy on you," Karone said. "Just pretend we're a pair of monsters."

"We'll be using full armor and weapons. These armbands," Ketana said, holding up one as an example, "will stop your hand as soon as you come into contact with armor. It will slow you down minutely, but it keeps everyone from having anything worse than a light bruise, and keeps you working with your true gear. The viewscreen inside your helmet will indicate a killing blow, at which point DECA will teleport you to the bridge, where you will be able to watch the rest of the fight. The armband can inhibit your functions accordingly if you are 'injured.' Your blasters and other explosive equipment for the uses of the test are fake."

"We'll start from within the ship. DECA will tell us when the test begins," Andros said, and the tone of his voice made it obvious that he was less than happy about the whole arrangement. "Agreed?"

"Agreed."

* * *

_"Again."_

_"Andros, we've run this simulation ten times today," Sianna said, very gently._

_"Run it again," he said, prepping himself for the next battle. Around him, pieces of the simulation faded._

_"No. I am ordering you to stand down."_

_"Sianna—"_

_"That's General Corman to you. I have indulged you in this, but it is time to face facts. We've run this simulation for the past three weeks, and the outcome hasn't changed. There's nothing you could have done. You couldn't have saved your sister, you couldn't have saved Ketana, you couldn't have saved Zhane."_

_He turned away, unable to face her._

_"You've got to let it go."_

_Every time he closed his eyes against the tears, he saw them. Saw them falling._

_"There is nothing you could have done."_

_Saw them falling alone._

* * *

Carlos listened to the conversations around him with less than half of his attention, focusing on Ashley instead. She was tense, pacing, constantly twirling her new sai.

"Well, this is going to be interesting," TJ said, as they all sat around the bridge, wondering when the call would come. "Any idea what they're planning out there?"

"They teleported out to the perimeter, we're go as soon as DECA detects their presence. This is also a test of how good the defenses are," Andros said.

"Isn't that a bit of a moot point, as they know how to get in here?" Cassie asked.

"Not really. They can only get in here because they are rangers, and DECA isn't recognizing them as such," Zhane said. "We can't track them too accurately for exactly that reason, though we should get a general idea from—"

"Intruder alert. Quadrant 4, South Vale. Intruder alert," DECA interrupted.

"Let's rocket!" TJ said.

"Dude, you don't have to say that anymore," Zhane said, glad that the teleportation sequence drowned out whatever TJ might have said in return.

_

* * *

_

_She woke again at dawn, alone on the same rock in the middle of the desert. Hearing the sounds of battle from far away, she moved toward it. It was further than she had imagined, it was nearly nightfall when she was finally close enough to make out figures on the field, a few flashes of a familiar style of armor. A ranger battle cry reached her ears, and she quickened her pace._

_" No!" She ran for them, trying to fight her way through the throng._

_Monsters advanced on her. _

_She was dead before she could even reach the rangers._

* * *

"Stay close. We don't want them to be able to pick us off one at a time," Andros whispered.

"There's a trail heading off this way," Ashley said, pointing to a recently disturbed branch.

"And another one over here," TJ said.

Andros hesitated slightly. Neither his sister nor Ketana were foolish enough to leave obvious trails like that. If they wanted to be followed, it meant that the trail led to a trap – yet if they knew he would immediately suspect a trap, they might have something else in mind. Knowing that they were probably somewhere near by, and monitoring their communications, he focused his thoughts into the communications array, and his orders showed up as text inside each of the ranger's helmets. Quickly and silently, they moved off.

_

* * *

_

_He was coming for her. Ecliptor, her only guardian, her only friend in the fortress, was coming for her. A chip had been installed in his head, and they were going to put one in her head. Her friends were out there, counting on her, and there was nothing she could do. Her brother was out there, counting on her, and there was nothing she could do. They were coming for her, to take her mind. To twist her mind to their own will. To use her mind, to use her body. She fought._

_She failed._

* * *

Karone watched as Zhane moved off with Ashley and Carlos in one direction, and Andros took TJ and Cassie in another, not down the fake paths, but in a classic flanking maneuver. She was perched in a tree high above them, Ketana by her side.

_'Clever,'_ Karone thought to her, prepping to jump down and follow after one group of three, as had been the plan.

_'Not clever enough,'_ Ketana thought back, and Karone paused. She hadn't thought that a change of location meant anything, as the original plan had been to make them split up anyway. Ketana continued, _'He's reacting to his knowledge of us, not to his instincts. He's holding back, I can feel it.'_

Karone wondered why it was important whether or not Andros was holding back, but chose not to ask Ketana about it. _'I take it that means a new plan?'_

_'Yep. They'll circle back here in a few minutes if no one finds anything.'_

_'And then?'_

_'Do you remember Zarantan?'_

_'Yeah, but...'_

_'But?'_

_'Isn't that, you know, cheating?'_

_'Not at all. They need to learn to look up. At any rate, none of Dharin's monsters will be interested in fair combat. Besides, we probably won't put anyone entirely out of the game.'_

_'Heh. You are evil,' _Karone said, and immediately regretted her choice of words. To her surprise, she felt the equivalent of a chuckle in response.

_'Get ready.'_

_

* * *

_

Andros couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. He knew that he was, but there was also a nagging feeling that there was something that he wasn't seeing. When his team didn't find anything, they circled back to the place where the paths had started. Zhane and the other two were waiting there, equally empty handed.

"No luck for you guys either?" Carlos asked.

"Nothing. They must have moved on already," TJ said. "We should—"

A slight creak in the branches, one that he felt rather than heard, was all the warning Andros had. "Everyone down! Go for cover!"

Ashley was closest to him. He grabbed her and dragged her into the brush with him, as a brilliant flash of light exploded in the clearing around them. He threw a quick shield around everyone he could sense close by, as the shockwave rolled over him. Overhead, he saw two figures darting away.


	7. Chapter Seven

Author's Note: There won't be another chapter next week, as I will be several hundred miles away from my computer. The next update will be February 11. Thank you for reading!

* * *

Chapter Seven: "Are our orders to kill or capture?"

_"Everyone down! Go for cover!" Sianna ordered, as star fighters screamed overhead. What had begun as a beautiful day was slowly turning into a twisted hell. It was all Andros could do to keep his head down and help the evacuation as enemy ships systematically reduced their base to rubble. In the distance, as the sun set, he could see the landing lights of troop carriers._

_Andros, what was left of his squadron, and any volunteers that could be spared held the hill against the advancing troops as long as they could, covering the retreat of the others. This was followed by a desperate run through the mountains, half-dragging, half-carrying the wounded._

_They made it to the secondary base with more survivors than he had hoped, and far less than he could accept. Still running on adrenaline, he immediately set out to find Sianna. She was wounded, but still barking out orders and seeing that everyone got proper care._

_"How did they find us?" Andros demanded, his exhaustion and shock foregoing any pleasantries._

_"Inside job," Sianna said grimly. "It had to be."_

_"They'll pay—"_

_"If they dealt with the Council, they're already paying, and not the price they thought. Our concern now is salvaging those we still have," Sianna said, looking him over. "You look like hell."_

_He couldn't answer; he was still trying to comprehend all that had happened. He was also wondering why nothing around him was agreeing stay in one place._

_"In fact, you look... medic! We need a medic over here, now!"_

_The world chose that moment to perform some very intricate tumbling moves, and when he could see straight again, there were several worried faces around him. "What happened about me?" he mumbled._

_"Sir, please lie back," A medic said, gently pushing him down as the world grew dark. The last words he heard where, "I don't even know how he's _alive_."_

* * *

"We should have pressed the advantage," Karone said, as they ran towards the ship.

"Not necessarily. This is a training exercise. It will take them a second to recover, if they even do, and that is time we can use."

"To do?"

"It's your trick this time, not mine. Let me see what you can do."

"Are our orders to kill or capture?"

"Kill."

"All right," Karone said, a plan already forming. "Try this one on for size."

* * *

_"Your plan is devious, my Princess," Ecliptor said, as they looked over the final plan for the Psycho rangers._

_"Yes. Implement it tomorrow," she said. She could take no joy in what she had done, could find no care in it. All that existed for her was victory, victory for herself._

_She would not fail._

* * *

"Is everyone okay?" Andros called, thankful that Ashley was only now regaining consciousness, and that no one had seen them in a somewhat compromising position. "I saw them leave; we're safe for the moment."

"We're all alive, if that's what you mean," TJ said, limping over. "I apparently twisted my ankle. Doesn't hurt, but I can't move it too well."

"Joy of training. Injury report?"

"I'm fine, just a little dizzy. No major injuries," Ashley said.

"Broken wrist," Carlos said, trying unsuccessfully to move his left hand.

"Minor muscle damage," Cassie said.

"Twisted my knee, but I'm good to go. We'd be a lot worse if it weren't for your shield, Andros," Zhane said.

"We'd be a lot better if I'd been paying attention," Andros said. "TJ, Zhane, Carlos, and Cassie, back to the ship for treatment. DECA will let you know when you can re-enter the game."

"But—" Zhane started.

"It's an option we use when we have it. You are no good to me injured, not when I can get you patched up. It won't take long; DECA will let you back in the game after a legitimate amount of time."

"Andros—"

"Go now!"

_

* * *

_

_She woke at dawn, alone on a rock in the middle of the desert. The sounds, the sounds she hated. She was compelled to follow them anyway. It was exactly as far away as she had remembered. She'd made this trip nearly a thousand times before. She had failed to save them nearly a thousand times before. _

_Each time she got a little closer. _

_A familiar battle cry reached her ears, and her stomach fell. A scream. The sounds of battle faded away._

_This time, it was different. There was only one figure, on the edge of the army. She ran to his side, just as he fell. Through the shattered helmet, she could see him._

_Andros._

_He was dead. She sank to her knees beside his body, and the horde did not advance. She screamed, the frustration, the pain, the shattering of her heart. He was dead._

_The monsters advanced._

_She stayed, kneeling over his body, shaking._

_One got close._

_She lashed out, driving her hand through the creature's rib cage, seizing its heart and ripping it out. The cry of the Phoenix rang over the field._

_They were all dead by nightfall._

_The next morning she woke in a room in Bastion._

_Her name was Shadow._

* * *

Ketana clung to the side of the ship, holding a few wires while Karone sabotaged the main computer. They weren't truly doing any damage, but DECA recognized the tolerances of her system, and let the simulation play out.

"Hand me those," Karone said, and Ketana did. "All right, we're golden. They can't teleport, or track us. Hold on..."

"What?"  
"Looks like I managed to block four of them mid transit, about halfway between here and the explosion site. Andros and Ashley are still back there," Karone said, excited.

"Let us hunt," Ketana said, already leading the way. This, the hunt, was what she was trained for. This was what she knew – this was what she was. She could just barely feel Karone's own excitement, through their light mental link. It wasn't as full a bond as she had had with Andros, but closer than most rangers enjoyed. Memories of her last bonding with Andros rose, and Ketana pushed them fiercely away. There was only the now, only the hunt.

There, in the distance she could hear confusion as the four tried to figure out what had happened to them.

They never stood a chance.

Ketana hit the three Earthborn fast and hard, taking them down as quickly as possible, leaving Karone a clear shot at Zhane. As soon as they were down, she stood back, watching Karone work. Zhane got in a few good hits, but Karone had the advantage and took him down.

The clearing was soon empty, except for the two of them, as DECA teleported the "dead" back to watch from the bridge. Karone was limping, and Ketana was sure she wouldn't survive the next encounter. Andros and Ashley were still out there, and her first attack had probably shaken Andros enough to make him dangerous again.

Perfect.

_

* * *

_

_"You've changed," Sianna said quietly._

_Andros didn't really look at her; his mind was already focusing on the upcoming battle. If they took back Kerova... If they took back Kerova, it wasn't going to bring anyone back; it wasn't going to make anything better._

_But taking down the Assassin was a task he was looking forward to, with a joy that was starting to border on obsession._

_"You honor their memory," Sianna said, nodding to the picture of the four laughing rangers in front of a fountain that was taped over his bed._

_He looked away. "It wouldn't be a memory..."_

_Sianna grabbed his chin and made him look at her. "You can't change what happened."_

_They embraced for a moment that was far too short, then the alarum sounded._

* * *

Andros jerked suddenly, stopping Ashley with a hand to her arm.

"What's wrong?" Ashley asked, already jumpy.

"The others... they're out."

"What? How?"

"I don't know. I've lost contact with DECA, I think they must have cut us off. They're hunting for us."

"What do we do?"

"We should – run. Run now," he said, and dragged her after him as a spray of laser fire hit the ground behind them. He knew this valley well, not as well as Ketana probably did, but he knew enough to know where to make a stand.

"Karone's injured, I can feel it," Andros said, as they reached the spot he had been aiming for. "Wait here, I'll drive her to you. If we keep them split there's a better chance of defeating them."

Ashley didn't argue, just drew her sai and prepared.

_

* * *

_

_Karone looked up, sensing Zhane's presence a half second before the door chimed. She didn't want to see him right now, but couldn't turn him away. "Come in."_

_"Hey," he said, grabbing her desk chair and straddling it. He looked up at her, chin on his hands on the back of the chair, and just waited for her to talk. She didn't._

_"So you made a mistake," he said. "You took on too many responsibilities at once, and in a training situation you made the wrong choice, and a few members of your team were injured. If you hadn't pulled that—do allow me to say brilliant—trick, then there would have been some 'deaths.' It was just a training run, there was no permanent damage. You will never make that mistake again."_

_"If... I suppose I could play the 'if only' game for a long time, couldn't I?" she said._

_"Yeah, you're really good at that one."_

_She threw a pillow at him. "So are you."_

* * *

It was a short and rather dirty fight. Karone went down, but took Ashley with her in the process. Both Ashley and Karone had been transported back to the ship by the time Ketana reached the clearing.

"Looks like it's just you and me, then," Andros said, raising his sword.

For a moment, it was very tempting to engage him then and there, but it wasn't time yet. He wasn't ready. "This exercise is terminated. DECA, initiate phase two."


	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight: "Kill."

At Ketana's command, all eight were teleported into the clearing in front of the ship. "You did well for your first time. We'll keep running this exercise, and each time you will get better."

"What now?" TJ asked.

"Full melee. The six of you against the two of us, open combat," Karone said. "Just pretend we're monsters."

"Are you sure—" Ashley started.

"You've been wanting a chance at me since we met, Yellow. Are you going to take it?" Ketana asked, again deliberately baiting the young girl. She was not disappointed. Ashley started the attack, and for a moment, the rest watched as the two of them fought. It became obvious that Ketana was playing with her. Karone pulled the rest into the fray, attacking at random, keeping them away from Ketana and Ashley.

It took him awhile, but Andros was finally able to get everyone working together. As long as they worked as a team, there was very little Ketana and Karone could do to separate them. Ketana continued to deliberately attack Ashley whenever possible – her strategy worked, Carlos lost his temper and came for her, ignoring Andros' order. This left a crucial hole in the attack against Karone. Karone exploited that hole, slipping in and taking out TJ, while Ketana took Carlos down. At this point, Ashley lost her temper, attacking Ketana. Ketana took care of her, even as Cassie ran across the field to her defense, falling soon after. Karone and Zhane fought, and a quick blast of magical energy from Ketana kept Andros from interfering. Zhane went down, but Andros got to Karone before she could celebrate her victory.

Andros and Ketana faced each other on the empty field, neither spoke.

Adrenalin pumped through Ketana's veins, and she almost laughed in anticipation. She had been waiting for this, to have him alone on the field after she had essentially destroyed everyone around him.

"DECA, initiate phase three," she said casually. Andros straightened, as if expecting to see the rest of the group rejoin them. They did not.

Very deliberately, Ketana pulled the inhibitor from her wrist and tossed it aside. After a moment's hesitation, Andros did the same.

* * *

"Is she crazy?" TJ sputtered. "DECA, get them back here, now."

"I am sorry TJ, but I cannot comply."

"Alpha?"

"The controls for this simulation are locked out by Lady Ketana, there is nothing that I can do," the robot said. "You are all confined to the ship until the exercise has run its course."

"It's just a practice session," Zhane said. "Let's watch."

She won the first round easily, putting Andros in the dirt. Ketana backed away, watching him with open contempt and disappointment. He stared back at her, shocked. He picked himself up and she was on him again, painfully, deliberately, and embarrassingly foiling his every attack. After several more passes, she pinned him to the ground.

"What is she doing?" Ashley asked, incredibly jealous to see Ketana straddling Andros like that.

Ketana leaned down and whispered something in a language that none of them understood, and that DECA refused to translate.

"I don't—" Karone broke off suddenly. In the space of a breath Andros had changed, reengaging with a ferocity that none of them had ever dreamed existed in him. Ketana met his challenge, grinning triumphantly.

Not even Karone or Zhane had ever seen anything quite like the sheer skill and speed of these two. For a moment it seemed almost like a dance to those watching, something out of a storybook. It was almost disappointing when Ketana and Andros broke apart.

It was then that they saw the blood. It was then that they all decided that this was no fairy tale. This was two people trying to kill each other. At Ketana's command, the viewscreen winked out, and DECA refused requests to turn it on again, let them out, or break the two fighters apart.

Only TJ was able to voice what all of them were thinking. "Did Ketana turn on us again?"

* * *

She found joy in the fight. The walls had broken. This was the ranger she had hunted, the one who had hunted her, her only worthy adversary. This was the man she had loved, quick, clever, intelligent, and ruthless when he had to be. The anger in him, in both of them, had disappeared after the first run. This wasn't vengeance; this was not any sort of unfinished business.

This was healing.

Their world narrowed to the other's blade. Time stopped.

* * *

"There's nothing I can do," Karone said, the sharp sting of failure pricking at her. "I've tried every trick I know, plus a few I just invented. Whatever she did, she did it well. We're trapped."

"There as to be something we can do!" Cassie cried.

"We wait," Zhane said quietly, his face tightly drawn.

* * *

The few minor hits that had been made in the first pass began to take their toll, as both started to tire, and the fighting got a little dirtier.

The pommel of Ketana's sword caught Andros firmly across the jaw, splitting his lip and sending him stumbling back. Time started again.

They had paced for what felt like hours; intermittently one of them would try again to bypass DECA's programs, at one point discussing the possibility of physically breaking down the doors.

"Simulation ended," DECA announced calmly.

The six of them looked at each other, then sprinted for the landing ramp.

Andros was down on one knee, sword point resting at the base of Ketana's ribs. Hers lay against his neck. Their eyes were locked, and neither moved. For a moment, the other six stood in the shadow of this ship, watching in shocked silence.

Slowly, they disengaged, never looking away. Andros stood, and both bowed deeply. She returned the bow. Suddenly the other six were around them, shouting.

Andros spat blood, took off one of his gloves and wiped his mouth, and waited until the others calmed down. Ketana stood at his side, sword dangling easily in her right hand. A tiny smile creased the corner of her mouth. He felt lighter than air.

"What?" Andros asked innocently, when everyone had finally calmed down, or at least fallen silent.

"Are you crazy?" Zhane shouted. "Look at yourselves! You were drawing blood!"

"You weren't using inhibitors; you could have killed each other!" Karone said, overlapping with Zhane. They glared at each other, then at Andros and Ketana.

"We're fine, these are only minor scratches," Andros said. "Relax."

"You bitch," Ashley said, eyes filled with anger. The clearing fell unnaturally silent.

Ketana didn't quite smile, but there was a definite spark of amusement in her eyes.

Ashley looked as if she were about to punch her, and an unholy light came into the Earthborn girl's eyes. Very deliberately, she reached over and touched Andros' bare hand.

Ketana went very still, and for an instant, a feral rage flashed across her eyes, evident enough to make Ashley stumble back.

Then she laughed. It was an eerie sound, filled with pain and anger and self-hate. She clapped. "Very good. You're learning to exploit situations for your own advantage. But I'm afraid the reaction you were looking for was purged in the fire."

"All of you. In the war room," Karone bit out, her own voice carefully controlled, though she was shaking ever so slightly. "_Now_."

* * *

Karone had ordered Ketana to the medbay to be patched up so that Karone could talk to the others without Ketana's increasingly unnerving presence. She'd thought that she understood her friend; she'd thought that Ketana could handle herself better. She'd thought that Ketana was more like her. Now, especially in light of the story Ketana had told her, Karone wasn't so sure any more. She'd been working through scenarios in her mind all afternoon, and could only come up with one option.

"Where the hell does she get off doing this to us? What is she trying to prove, that she's so much better than us?" Ashley demanded.

"Our only intent is to try to prepare you for what's out there," Karone said. "Look, you have to understand that whenever we're training, you can't take anything personally. When we're in a training exercise, everything gets left outside."

"A training exercise?" Carlos asked, looking very pointedly over at Andros, whose wounds were being tended to by a remarkably silent Alpha.

"If you're angry on my account, don't be," Andros said, taking a seat next to his sister when Alpha let him. "I knew exactly what I was doing. She knew exactly what she was doing."

"You're _bleeding_," Ashley said. "That b—"

"I have had much worse," Andros said sharply. "I will thank all of you to leave the events of Ketana's and my fight to us."

Secretly, Karone wanted to strangle her brother, he wasn't making this any easier. "Fine. Now, as we have already discussed, you did well in the first round of the simulation. I think we've all learned a lesson about being more alert."

"Yeah, especially about looking up." Zhane said, trying to lighten the mood and failing miserably.

"Are you trying to teach us that going to someone's defense is wrong?" Carlos asked bitterly.

"No. But the safety of the team cannot be sacrificed for an individual, especially if that individual is capable of taking care of themselves. You didn't get to Ashley, and TJ died because you left the group unprotected," Karone said, flinching inwardly at the expression on Carlos' face as she said it.

"The fact is, some of you got angry, and because of that you got sloppy," TJ said.

"Oh, so you're taking her side—" Ashley started.

"No one is taking sides here," Karone said, quickly heading off another argument. "The rules have changed. The enemy isn't stupid. They will try to tear us apart, exploiting whatever they see as weakness. Ketana pointed out a weakness today. We fix it, we move on. Questions?"

No one said anything.

There was a knock at the door, and Karone shifted uncomfortably. The more she thought about it, the more her solution made sense, but she couldn't help but feel that she was about to betray her friend. "Come in."

"Are you ready for me?" Ketana asked sweetly, and Karone felt another stab of guilt. Ketana took the open seat near Andros, but was not quite part of the circle.

Karone resolved not to let herself be intimidated by the situation, or her own fears. "There is no way to be certain when the next attack will come, but I know that we'll be ready for it. Our training will continue, in time we'll move on to more than simple melee classes," Karone said, putting great emphasis on "our." Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ashley glaring at Ketana. She took a deep breath before she continued, still trying to convince herself that this was the best course of action. "However, I do think that some precautions need to be taken."

"Precautions?" Andros asked, sitting up a little straighter.

Karone couldn't look at him, couldn't look at Ketana. "In light of recent events, I think it would be best if your access codes were revoked and you were confined to the valley unless escorted, Ketana. And that you should not, at this time, be a fighter."

"Great idea!" Ashley said gleefully.

"You've said yourself that there are no guarantees that you won't turn again," Karone said, forcing herself to meet her friend's eyes. "This is for your protection as much as ours."

"You can't be serious," Zhane said, staring at her in shock.

"I'm in favor of that," Cassie said quietly.

"So am I!" Ashley said, with a lot more enthusiasm.

"I suppose that's for the best," TJ said reluctantly, and Carlos simply nodded.

"I don't agree with this at all," Zhane said, flatly.

"Neither do I. I—" Andros started to rise, but fell silent and sat back when Ketana placed a hand on his arm.

"A very sensible decision, Karone," Ketana said softly her tone sending a chill across Karone's shoulders. "Probably something I would have done, were I in your shoes. I will accede to your wishes."

Somehow, Karone found herself wishing that Ketana had put up more of a fight. "All right then. We'll pick up again tomorrow afternoon."

Snatches of conversations started and were abandoned, as no one was quite comfortable with being in the room with the entire group any more. Ketana was long gone before most of them even registered that she had left.

"I can't believe you just did that to her," Zhane said, once the room was empty.

"Zhane, I—" Karone started, a massive headache forming behind her eyes. "It's for the best."

"Whatever happened to trust?" he asked, blocking her when she tried to leave.

"Do you think I haven't been thinking that myself? I know this looks like betrayal, but I don't see any other course of action," Karone said, throwing the same arguments against him that she had been using against herself. "She could have killed him."

"So you took it upon yourself to decide what's best for her, without talking to me, or Andros, or Powers forbid even to Ketana?" he asked, grey eyes flashing.

"So I have to clear everything with you now, is that it?" His comments reminded her of all the times at the Academy that someone decided that she had to check in with someone else because she was younger than everyone else was, and made her more defensive.

"No, but you could have at least cleared it with Ketana, instead of just bringing it up in front of everyone! Who decided to make you team leader?"

"Someone had to step up, are we supposed to place our fates in the hands of two people who just tried to kill each other?" she snapped.

"Look, I'm not entirely comfortable with that myself, but don't you think that if they were trying to kill each other, they would have succeeded? If Ketana was really a plant she could have ended it all right there, with Andros dead and the rest of us trapped in the ship," Zhane said, bringing up the one thing that had been bothering her. "How hard would it have been to program DECA to gas all of us while she dealt with Andros?"

"Maybe they're having her bide her time," she said, unconvincingly.

"And how do you figure that?"

"I don't know! I'm just trying to protect everyone," she said, growing more and more frustrated.

"You can't protect anyone by putting a rift in the team, and that is exactly what you have done," he said, and left.

Karone sat and put her head in her hands, already wishing that she could take back things said and done. But she had made the decision, and she would stick to it. Despite her personal feelings, this was still the best choice for the team. Ketana was too unpredictable to be trusted, and too valuable to be placed in a position where the enemy might get their hands on her again.

At least, that was what she told herself.


	9. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine: ...threatened

Ketana had again melted away, easily avoiding the others, wanting to escape whatever apology or excuse Karone might offer, the words of comfort from Zhane, and the indifference or outright contempt of the Earthborn. She planned to go to the volcanic steam vents, to let the heat dispel some of her anger. Deep down, she couldn't really blame Karone for her actions, knowing that she might have made the same call if their positions were reversed. But the prospect of being trapped here, left behind while the others fought the enemy that she knew so well, ate at her soul. This team was good, and would get better, but Dharin and his minions were going to destroy them. None of them – Andros excepted – was prepared for what they were about to face. The rift between herself and the Earthborn wasn't going to get any smaller if they believed her to be a threat, and as long as Karone singled her out, there wasn't much chance of changing their minds. She also knew, given her past reactions, that being kept from fighting was going to drive her quietly mad.

At the door to the landing ramp she let out a breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding, forcing herself to breathe deeply. She could get around it. Adapt, assume a new mask. Karone wouldn't be happy unless Ketana became the person that she remembered, and if Karone wasn't happy, she wouldn't be in a place to properly protect and train the rangers. Closing her eyes, she dropped deep within herself, searching for the memories of a stranger. It was difficult to face these memories again, and she didn't stay long. Enough to remember mannerisms, turns of phrase, expressions, what it was to have been that person. Shaking away guilt she didn't entirely understand, she reached for the keypad.

"Access denied," DECA said calmly.

"What?"

"I'm sorry, Ketana," Alpha said, appearing quietly at her elbow. "You have been confined to the ship until further notice."

"Ah," she said, very, very quietly.

"I'm sorry," the android repeated, but she barely heard him. "Lady Ketana?"

She didn't respond.

"Ketana," Alpha said, more forcefully. Finally, she looked up. "Lord Zordon placed you here for a reason. Do not forget that."

Numb, she nodded and headed slowly for her own room.

* * *

"It was the right thing to do!" Ashley finally burst out, as the four of them sat under a secluded grove of trees in the park. As far off the paths as one could get, and at midnight, one of the most secure places they could meet. They had gone there intending to discuss the day's events, but until Ashley's outburst none had known what to say. "I don't know why everyone's so upset about this."

"Did you see Zhane and Andros' faces? It was like Karone had just betrayed them, not Ketana," Cassie said.

"And she _agreed_ with Karone. Said that it was a good idea," Ashley said. "She could have killed Andros. She could have killed all of us."

"But she didn't," Carlos said.

"You guys are missing the point," TJ said sharply, bringing all other conversation to a halt. In that moment it was very clear why he had once been a team leader. "Whatever Ketana's done or not done doesn't make any difference. We got our butts kicked today, in a fight where we outnumbered the enemy three to one. We lost a fight."

"Against two—"

"Against two people who have worked for the other side. They beat us. Ketana has already proven that she can take down the entire team _by herself_. We're up against something major, here. Something that turned someone our friends used to trust into a killer. I don't care if you do or don't like Ketana. Right now the only thing we can afford to care about is getting prepared. Do you get it?"

"I..." Ashley said, knowing that she couldn't deny the logic in TJ's words.

"Do you get it?" he asked again.

"Yeah... Yes, I do."

* * *

Andros wasn't sure if he should go in search of her or not. Ketana probably needed some time to herself. However lightly she had played off the decision earlier, he knew that she wasn't happy about it. He could, in a way, understand what Karone had done, and he knew Ketana would too.

Yet, it seemed now that Karone's decision didn't mean anything anymore. Far greater things had been set into motion by their fight. Ketana had broken walls with her words earlier, walls that he hadn't put in place. He willed the clock to move faster, so that he might have an excuse to seek her out. He sat down on his bed, intending to pull his mind back into some sort of coherence.

* * *

Ketana sat in the dark, meditating. As Alpha had reminded her, Zordon had asked her to remain here – and she intended to do everything in her power to make him glad of his decision. She was trying to gather the shards of her broken mind together, as she had been taught. Her body had been recovered from the Kerovan ruins after the second battle for the planet, not by demons, but by rebels. They had sheltered her for nearly five months, on the edge of the area affected by the orbs – until she had given herself up in order to save them. During that time she had been in the company of rangers that could, in their own way, understand. They had done their best to heal her, and the training that they had given her allowed her to keep a tiny piece of her mind free when she had been re-indoctrinated.

She tired to focus.

Tried to pull the pieces of her mind together.

And failed.

Her tenuous grip on sanity slipped, and she fell into the past.

_There was something about the prisoner kneeling before her, human, brown and blonde striped hair, brown eyes, even his mannerisms seemed to say that she should know him. It didn't matter. They had ordered her to kill him. She knew the consequences of disobeying their orders. A shred of herself argued, and was silenced. It wasn't worth it._

_Warm blood splattered across the floor._

_

* * *

_

The memory had been buried very deep, but it seized Andros' mind with such strength that it might well have happened that day.

_"How is he?"_

_The words floated to him as he fought to stay conscious, sustained by an all consuming rage._

_"Heavily sedated – as in more than I could safely give you and have you still breathing. It's not enough. He'll be up in an hour, two at the most. And if his prior behavior is any thing to judge by..."_

_"Right."_

_There was a pause. He fought harder to remove the contaminants from his body, determined to have control once again._

_Determined to kill._

_"Is he stable enough for a psychic connection?"_

_"Stable? Hell, General, his mind has been molded to make him more susceptible to that. It's the same pleasure/pain conditioning we've seen in the others, only this—this is far more sophisticated. If you're thinking of trying anything, it will have to be now. If he wakes up, believe me, you're not going to get another chance."_

_Another pause. Already he was planning ways to fight them._

_"Prep him."_

_Footsteps. The one whose voice identified him as a medic rummaged for something in nearby drawers. Something to check for useful weapons later._

_A hand on his arm, and if he could have moved, he would have recoiled. "I'm so sorry, Andros."_

He jerked away from the memory, heart pounding, mind racing. Andros slowly calmed himself down, feeling his way through the memories. Two months of his life had been hidden away, locked up for his own protection. Sianna hadn't the time or the skill to heal him that day. She had instead placed powerful blocks around his memories, light enough that he could access the skill he had gained, but strong enough to hold back the memories. During the time of the orbs, these walls had become warped, blocking him from skill as well as an increasing number of memories. Ketana's words and actions had broken the walls.

He swung his feet over the side of the bed, sitting up slowly. The world spun once, and settled back into focus.

He had been a prisoner. Just like Ketana. Not nearly as long, but...

Bare feet were soundless on the cold metal deck as he went soundlessly to her room. He didn't remember making the decision to go to her, but knew that he had to speak to her again.

"Alpha?" he asked, unsure. He was more than a little surprised to see the android standing in front of her door.

"Karone asked me to stand guard. She does not believe that you and Ketana should be meeting, after this day's... incident," Alpha said, shifting uncomfortably.

"And what do you think?"

"I think that she needs you – and you need her – more than either of you are willing to admit."

Now it was Andros' turn to shift. "A lot has changed."

"At least you finally realize that," the android said, and continued before Andros could make any defense. "Karone asked me to stand watch for the night. It is now technically morning. Good day."

Andros shook his head as he watched Alpha leave, marveling at the changes in the robot. He hadn't known Alpha before, but for his reputation. He turned to the door and knocked.

There was no answer.

"Ketana?" he called.

No answer.

* * *

_They took a month or two to "soften her up," torture for torture's sake. They had no need for questions. When they tired of this, she was fighting for her life in an arena for the pleasure of a demonic audience. When she failed, she died. When revived, she fought the same fight again, and again, and again, until she defeated her foe. Time stretched and had no meaning, she lived a thousand days, died a thousand deaths in the passage of one hour._

_Mercy was the first to go. Fear, compassion, and pity followed soon after. Humanity itself slipped away. Soon she wasn't losing quite so many battles. Soon she did not wait to be attacked. Soon, she gave less thought to winning the match and more to making those foolish enough to attack her pay for their deeds. When she became proficient with one weapon, it was taken away and she was given a new one. Towards the end, she wasn't given a weapon at all._

_It didn't matter._

_

* * *

_

He was inside before consciously deciding to do so. The door hadn't been locked, something that would have bothered him if he had taken the time to think about it.

The room was pitch black, but he could hear her thrashing on the bed, moaning through clenched teeth. His heart sank.

"DECA, half lights," he said softly. Absently, he reached behind him and locked the door, keying it so only he could open it again. The light revealed a lip bitten through against crying out, a face twisted in pain.

* * *

_She had tried to escape once, before the last shred of humanity had been stolen from her. On being recaptured, she had been allowed to lie in a cold dark cell for nearly a day. She'd thought that it would mean more torture, more time in the ring. She'd been wrong. _

Ketana fought harder to regain control of her. "No... no, please, no!"

The memory seized her, and dragged her down.

_Soft. It was something she hadn't expected to feel again, something that was soft and warm..._

* * *

"No... no, please, no!"

Andros could barely make out her mangled words, but it was enough to renew the ache in his heart. He couldn't touch her to comfort her, or even to shake her awake – touching her made it worse. She didn't respond to his verbal entreaties. After one more tentative try to reach her mind, he abandoned that all together. Whatever it was that had control of her could very easily destroy him – and if her mind decided that Andros was the intruding force, he was fair certain that Ketana could destroy him just as easily.

In his time with Sianna and the other rebels he had seen cases similar to Ketana's, though, as Sianna had said of him, nothing as severe. He did, unfortunately, know of one last tactic. Quickly, before he could talk himself out of it, he hit a few of her pressure points. It was enough to cause excruciating pain, and enough to break the hold on her mind.

Ketana gasped and convulsed into a sitting position, and Andros caught her. Shaking, she let herself be held, resting her head on his shoulder. With every part of his soul he wanted to pull her closer, but he forced himself to keep his arms loose. He did not want her to feel threatened.


	10. Chapter Ten

A/N: Woohoo! Seems that I have placed in the top three in awards over at the Power Ranger Couples Awards, (see link in profile) which was totally unexpected. I was just happy to be nominated. So, to those who voted: Thank you! I'll post the actual results in my profile when I get them.

Unfortunately, I will have to put the updates on temporary hold for the next two weeks, as I will be several time zones away from my computer. Sorry about this, but hopefully in the interim I'll have some time to catch up in order to insure that updates will be continuous once I get back. Thanks for reading!

* * *

Chapter Ten: She pulled away. 

It was everything she had forgotten, feelings of warmth, safety, and comfort. The feel of his arms, the scent of his body, it was all so familiar. For a moment she remembered the strength of their bond at the beach, and was tempted to renew it. But with the taint of all that she had done, and had been done to her, she couldn't let Andros know, couldn't expose him to the same contamination.

She pulled away.

The brief flash of hurt in his eyes was quickly suppressed, and he started to leave. She caught his hand, and just as quickly dropped it. He stayed. "Thank you," she said quietly, drawing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about her strong desire to have him hold her.

"I'm sorry I—"

"It was the quickest way to snap me out of it," she said. It occurred to her that she wasn't entirely sure what had been held behind that memory block. "How did you know?"

"I've seen less sophisticated cases of it... and I have my own experiences. How did you know?"

So that was it. He had been a prisoner of the council, just as she had. She could see the struggle in his eyes, as he came to terms with a life that had been so easily pushed aside for him. She longed to ask him what they had done to him. But she could not ask him questions without being willing to answer any of his. "I... recognized Sianna's work on the memory block. I didn't know what it was hiding... so, you too?"

"Yes."

"How long?" she asked, immediately regretting it. _'So much for not asking him questions.'_

"A few months. Not as long as you, but—"

"—long enough," she said, remembering the first few months of her own captivity. "I... I'm sorry."

His lips quirked slightly. "Eh. Three months wasn't so bad—"

Her stomach fell through the floor, and she could feel the blood drain from her face.

_Warm blood splattered across the floor._

"—compared to... Are you all right?"

"Fine," she said, looking away. "I suppose you can just say that we're even."

"What do you... Oh." He also paled.

"I suppose 'I'm sorry' doesn't even begin to cover it."

"I don't know. How did it work when I apologized to you?"

"Heh. Point."

"You know, you're taking this remarkably well."

She rubbed the dried blood from her newly healed lip. "Years of putting up a mask, making everything okay at any and all costs."

"I'm sorry for wanting things to have been the way they were," he said, after a moment's silence.

"You know, I had expected that from them. Not from you," she said, a little more sharply than she had intended. She sighed, "If we continue on like this, we're going to spend the rest of the night apologizing."

"Yeah, I know."

"Karone has me confined to the ship. But eventually... I owe you some lessons."

"You don't—"

"And you owe me a bar brawl, Red."

"You've got yourself a deal," he laughed, and then softened. "Will you be all right?"

"Probably not. But I should be able to make it through the night. If not, you know what to do. Go get some rest," she said. He'd be feeling the stress of the influx of new memories bad enough as it was.

"Do you want me to stay?"

_'Yes.'_ "No. Karone would murder us both if you spent the night here."

He reached for her hand, and she barely managed not to flinch away out of pure habit. She relaxed slightly as he squeezed her hand.

"Good night."

* * *

A gentle knocking at her door drew Ketana from her meditation. With a little unease, she noticed that more time had passed than she had realized. It was morning. "Yes?" 

"It's Karone. May I come in?"

"Of course," Ketana said, grateful that Karone had at least asked. They both knew that under the protocol, Karone could have walked right in if she was so inclined.

Karone met her eyes unflinching, and Ketana couldn't help but feel a glimmer of respect for her friend. Karone, acting under existing guidelines, had made the decision that she felt was right, and would not be cowed. It was good to see the new self-confidence in her friend's eyes, however much Ketana disagreed with her decision. When Ketana did not say anything, a thought flashed through Karone's eyes. Regret? Compassion? No. A sense of right.

"DECA informed me that you haven't been eating properly, so last night I had Alpha program the food dispenser to... take care of that. And DECA's created some new clothes for you, you shouldn't be wearing your old armor any more. You can start a new life here, Ketana. It's going to be okay."

If it hadn't been for the honest compassion and caring in her words, Ketana would have throttled her right then and there. Instead, she forced herself to smile. "Thanks."

"Alpha will be by later with some research for you to work on."

"Fine," Ketana said, as Karone started to leave.

She paused.

"And?" Ketana asked, involuntarily bracing herself.

"When the Earthborn come by for practice today... I don't think you should be there."

* * *

There was a clarity in everything around him, a clarity he had sorely missed. Pain, too, an ache that he suspected would never fully go away. But for the first time in years, he looked at the world through his own eyes, not filtered through the machinations of anyone else, for good or ill. 

"You look... I don't know, I suppose 'better' is the best word I can come up with right now," Zhane said, stumbling slightly as he came down the ramp. The Earthborn were due to arrive soon for the afternoon training session.

"You don't," Andros said, looking critically at his friend. Zhane looked tired, mentally as well as physically. "What's wrong?"

"So what did you do last night?" Zhane asked, attempting to lean casually against a support strut, and failing miserably.

"I asked first," Andros said.

"Your point?"

"And, I can still plant your face in the dirt," Andros teased.

"Good point. There must be something wrong in the universe. You're trying to cheer _me_ up."

"Well?"

"I... had a fight with Karone last night, couldn't sleep," Zhane said, looking away. "Your turn."

"All right, let's get started," Karone said, saving Andros from having to come up with a suitable explanation. "We'll be working on getting you used to your new weapons today. We'll be working in teams, Andros, you're with TJ, Zhane with Ashley and Cassie, and I'll work with you, Carlos. Split up and start sparring."

"Where's Ketana?" Cassie asked. "Shouldn't she at least be here, advising?"

"I've asked her not to join us," Karone said, and Andros noticed that she was very carefully not meeting his or Zhane's eyes. "You need some time to get used to your new weapons."

Andros stifled a pointed comment, and signaled Zhane to hold his peace. Zhane glared at him a moment, then his usual mask of easy flippancy slipped into place. "Looks like I'm the lucky one today, hmm?" he said, with an oh-so-charming smile. "If you two lovely ladies would follow me?"

Andros watched his friend for a split second, marveling at Zhane's ability to flip his personality on and off as needed. He had the suspicion that this wasn't a new trick, but rather one that he simply hadn't seen when they were younger. TJ was waiting patiently for him, forestalling any other study.

"All right, let's do a quick pass, to see what you know." TJ nodded and prepared, and Andros attacked. He was looking for mistakes and holes in TJ's technique, something he probably should have been doing with all of them from when he first met them. In his experience, rangers had the tendency to get overly confident in their skills, allowing their powers to cover for any mistakes. He had seen too many people die for that mistake to allow it in his own team.

From his own years as a team leader and his own innate talent, TJ was taking to his new sword very well, and it was obvious that he had been practicing on his own. From his martial arts training and his baseball playing TJ was already comfortable with letting the power of his strikes come from his hips rather than his shoulders. Learning strictly by intuition and experience, though, had left him with a few potentially exploitable bad habits.

"Don't switch hands when you block low," Andros said. "It weakens you."

"It feels faster," TJ said.

Andros was beginning to appreciate why Kerovan rangers started their training so young. He switched his approach, attacking low and high with increasing speed. TJ's blocks became correspondingly slower, until finally Andros stopped a stroke inches from TJ's face when he missed a parry.

"Ah," was TJ's only reply.

"Try it this way," Andros said, demonstrating. "Be careful not to cross your wrists."

"This feels awkward."

"Only because you're not used to it. Again."

The exercise continued, and this time TJ was able to keep up. It pleased Andros to see TJ's reaction as he realized that not only was this faster, but it took less effort and allowed for more flexibility in available defensive and offensive postures.

"Good," Andros said, breaking off.

"Handy little trick."

"People tend to assume that sword technique involves a lot of hack and slash – which some of it does – but hack and slash will tire you out eventually. Little things, like the proper block or the proper flick of the wrist will make you faster, better defended, and less tired than your opponent."

"So, for all our ranger powers, we're still beginners?" TJ asked.

Andros looked at him surprised. TJ had made a few mistakes, but he'd only gotten the weapon a few days before – and was already showing tremendous progress. Apparently, TJ's confidence had been badly shaken by the last few weeks, which came as somewhat of a surprise to Andros. He had tremendous respect for the young Earthborn, and Andros had always been slightly uncomfortable taking over as team leader, for all that TJ had seemed content to step down.

"Not at all. You're adjusting to using a sword remarkably well. I'm just trying to help you get better."

TJ still didn't seem satisfied. "It's gotten a lot more dangerous out there, hasn't it?"

"It has."

"This was the part where you're supposed to be comforting."

"I have more respect for you than that, TJ. Yes, it's bad. Sometimes I'm not entirely sure that you guys appreciate just how bad it is. And some days I wonder if I even know half of what's out there."

"And Ketana, the one person who has the best idea, has just been pushed away."

Andros didn't say anything, but he was glad that TJ had come to that conclusion on his own. Five years ago, he would have jumped immediately to Ketana's defense, defying any and all who spoke against her. Today, he was reserving judgment until he had the chance to talk to her himself, and was unwilling to set himself up in opposition to his sister. He was willing to let her take over leadership of the team. She had always been the better leader, at least in peacetime.

"And silence descends," TJ said, clearly picking up on at least some of Andros' internal struggle.

"Karone had her reasons. The rest of you do too."

"Whatever. The point here is that _you_ seem to trust her. Why?"

"We've been friends since we were toddlers."

"So have she and Karone. That's not an answer."

"And we're the only two here who are aware of that three year gap," he said, choosing his next words carefully. "I suppose you could say that were bound by common experience."

"You actually saw some of what made her what she is, instead of suddenly having a friend who isn't the one you knew," TJ said, after a moment's digestion of his words. "Her weirdness makes more sense to you."

"Perhaps," Andros said simply, letting TJ draw his own conclusions from there.

* * *

Karone would probably be upset if she knew that Ketana was monitoring their practice session, but Ketana considered the fact that she was only watching and not eavesdropping was a step in the right direction. Old habits died hard, and paranoia had been one of the first she learned. It was good to see progress in the Earthborn, they were learning quickly. Her resolution not to eavesdrop had been sorely tested when Andros and TJ had stopped to have their conversation. TJ was still the unofficial leader of the Earthborn and having his approval could eventually sway the others. 

She'd spent a good chunk of the morning bringing her anger at the situation under control, time spent in meditation once she'd realized that she was no longer allowed access to the simudeck to spend some time fighting. A desire to fight that bordered on obsession had been hammered in to her.

What she really needed to do was to sit Karone down and have a real conversation. This, however, was unlikely to happen as long as Karone was terrified of making a mistake. She wouldn't respond well to being told that she had made the wrong decision. It was taking a lot of faith for Ketana to trust that Karone would eventually come around.

Disgusted with herself, disgusted with the situation, Ketana switched off the viewscreen. She went to her quarters, flinching at her own reflection in the control panels. The clothing that Karone had deemed "acceptable" was all pure white, suitable for the diplomatic functions-that-had-been on Kerova, and very little else (in fact, some of the pieces were exact copies of things that she had worn). Ketana felt like a walking target. None of the pieces had high collars or long sleeves, or for that matter, anything that kept her from feeling terribly revealed. How Alpha had know, Ketana wasn't sure, but she blessed the robot for his foresight in slipping a standard disguise chip into the pile of clothing, or she was fair certain Karone would have hit the roof if she had seen her without her nano-tech born illusion. Another lie, but at least one that wasn't as likely to be detected. Ketana wasn't sure how the android knew, but if Alpha wasn't going to make it an issue, neither was she.

She had work to do.


	11. Chapter Eleven

A/N: Sorry for the delay. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter Eleven: "I am very good..."

Two days later, Carlos told the others he had homework to take care of over lunch, but had instead teleported to the grove. He walked aimlessly through the jungle, meditating on the last week. He still couldn't shake the memory of having Ashley kicked into his lap, of Ketana's cruel words. No matter what he focused on, that awkward image continued to pop into his mind at extremely inopportune moments. It made his skin crawl. He'd tried apologizing to Ashley, but she had instead launched into an all too familiar tirade against Ketana, and barely seemed to have noticed him.

And that was another subject of worry. He couldn't quite believe Ashley's behavior since their capture and subsequent meeting of Ketana. He didn't necessarily trust Ketana either, nor was he particularly happy that she had broken Ashley's hands. But still... what had happened to the sweet, forgiving, caring girl he had loved? Briefly, he wondered if that was what Andros felt when he looked at Ketana. While nothing concrete had ever been said about their relationship, he could recognize their feelings for each other as clearly as his own. He'd seen it when Ketana had first watched Andros and Ashley, and recently when Andros looked at Ketana.

"Good afternoon."

Carlos' heart nearly stopped. "Ah—hi. I didn't see you there," he stuttered. Ketana was leaning casually against a tree, clad in a white tank top, flowing white pants, with a green scarf for a belt – in other words, clothing that did not lend itself to camouflage. He still hadn't seen her, hadn't even heard her.

He realized that he wasn't hiding his unease as well as he thought when she said, "Don't worry, Andros is near by, keeping an eye on me. Karone is allowing me out for walks now."

"Umm..." Carlos tried to think of a suitably polite thing to say, but just couldn't come up with anything.

"Forgive me. My skills in dealing with other people are not what they once were, so I will simply say what I wanted to say. I am sorry. My actions toward you were cruel."

"You were... Look, we do understand that we'd all be dead if it weren't for you," he said.

She watched him for a moment, face unreadable. "Well, then. I'll let you get on with your walk."

Carlos watched as she started to leave. "Wait," he said, surprising both of them.

"Yes?"

"What happened to you, before, when Ashley touched Andros?"

She was silent for a long moment, as if deciding whether or not she wanted to tell him anything. "After... after I contacted you from Ceros, I was recaptured, and re-indoctrinated. Part of what made that possible was my infection with a substance known as Lover's Bane. Every time Ashley touched Andros, I was subjected to... a great deal of pain. Darkonda used that to twist my mind, to turn me back into their pawn. Fortunately for you all, Darkonda is more interested in creating chaos than pawns, and the job he did was imperfect."

"But if it was imperfect, why did you still capture us?"

"I was offered Karone's life in return for your capture."

"What?"

"If I hadn't captured you, Karone would have died, and they would have sent someone else after you. Someone who would not have healed Ashley's hands, someone who would not have saved you."

"I guess that means that we really do owe you," Carlos said.

"You don't owe me anything," she said shortly. "Go. You'll be late for your class." She stepped around the tree, and disappeared completely.

Carlos stood there for a long time, before he finally teleported back to the school.

* * *

"Hey," Andros said, when she rejoined him. He was lounging on a rock near a series of deep blue pools, twisting a length of grass through his fingers. They hadn't said much to each other since their fight and the night after. 

"Hey," she said, sitting beside him. A twinge from an old injury caused her to gasp slightly. Alpha had been steadily reducing her dependence on stimulants and painkillers, and it was quickly becoming apparent that she had needed them more than she realized.

"Are you all right?" he asked, concerned. He reached for her instinctively, and she pulled away.

They sat in silence.

* * *

Ketana sat cross-legged on the floor. A single candle burned in front of her, the only illumination in the room. She held a dagger loosely in her right hand, just in case. 

She had done it before, and knew she could do it again, if she had to – and apparently she did. When she'd had to hunt the rangers before she had made her mind believe what it needed to finish her mission. And now, because she needed to, she could make Karone and the others believe that she was all right. If she didn't they would never let her fight again.

Briefly, she thought of Zhane's older brother Etarin, and his second in command Vasa Ili – the two that had rescued her and taught her how to control her mind. She'd only resumed contact with them recently. The contact was minimal at that, enough to verify that they were all still alive, and enough to get Etarin's morpher and helmet from the time he had spent masquerading as the Phantom Ranger. If it weren't for Zordon's orders she'd have left for their camp long ago.

Setting aside her thoughts of old friends, her desires, and her fear at facing her own mind, she focused on the flame.

* * *

"Carlos, man, you okay?" 

"Yeah... yeah, I think I'm fine."

* * *

"All right, pack it in! Good work, everyone," Karone called, at the end of their practice session, nearly a week after banishing Ketana. Her joy was evident. Not only were the rangers making progress, but Ketana was as well. Over the last week she'd been lightening up slowly, warming to the other rangers as they warmed to her. "Tomorrow we'll start work on mind disciplines – telekinesis and the like. You guys are making tremendous progress." 

"Not nearly enough," TJ said, just loud enough for Andros to hear him.

"I'm sorry?"

"Nothing."

The rest of the team started headed inside, but TJ didn't follow. Neither did Andros. "You coming?" he asked.

"No."

"Umm... why not?"

"I want to keep working."

"Any particular reason?"

"Look, I'm not going to just sit around and wait to be attacked."

"No one can accuse you of doing that, TJ." Andros sighed. He'd been afraid of this since seeing TJ grow increasingly grim, since their conversation over swordplay. "I know you. This morning you were up early, running, pushing yourself. You spent the day excelling in some of the hardest classes your school has to offer, and you just finished a three-hour practice – in which you did very well. I know you don't believe me when I say that, but you did. I trust you to have my back. But you cannot push yourself so hard that exhaust yourself... or that you start to push people away. Believe me, I know," Andros said, the words sort of falling out of him.

"Umm... I think that's the most I have ever heard you say at once."

"Probably. I know a little bit about dodging subjects, too," Andros said, falling into step with his friend as they both headed for the ship.

"Yeah, you do."

Andros laughed. "Go on," he said, waving TJ in the general direction of the mess hall once they were in the ship. "I need to check on a scan I was running."

"You need some help?"

"No, it'll only take a second."

"You sure?"

"You're not going to catch a whole lot more breaks from me. And I know that I for one, am starving."

TJ smiled. "Fine. At this point, even I'll eat and enjoy replicated food."

Andros watched TJ go as he headed for the bridge. "I am aware of the hypocrisy," he said, quietly, as much to the general surroundings as to himself.

The scan turned up negative, both a disappointment and a relief. There was still no sign of any enemy encroachment in this system, and he didn't know if that was because they weren't there or if they simply weren't showing up. With a word of thanks to DECA and Alpha, he headed for the mess hall.

A faint scent stopped him as he stepped out onto the habitat deck, trapping him with memories – happy ones. It enveloped him as he drew closer to the kitchen. He leaned against the doorway, watching, embraced by the heat.

For a few moments, he was happy. For a few moments, he watched and he believed, because he wanted so badly to believe. It was a truly beautiful scene. Ketana was smiling, even hesitantly laughing as she offered a meal she had cooked herself to the team. It was exactly what Karone had hoped to trigger: a turn around, a return of the Ketana that had once been.

For a moment, he believed.

Then Karone grabbed her arm, and he saw the lie. No one else did, no one else would, but he saw it. And he turned from the warmth and walked back out into the night.

_

* * *

_

_Smile. But don't smile too wide or too bright. Add the proper amount of humility._ "We seem to continually get off on the wrong foot." _A touch of embarrassment, the right blend of honest appeal. _They believe in happy endings. "I was hoping this could be something of a peace offering."

"Wow... what is it?" Cassie asked.

_Cassie. Sweet, empathetic Cassie. She wants to believe._

"It's..." _A little bit awkward. Show them you're struggling to embrace a new way of life._ "Well, these were some of my favorite dishes on Kerova, and I thought that you might like them to." _Never mind that the smell of them makes you sick. _They believe in hope

"You sure you're not trying to poison us?" Ashley asked, more out of habit than actual desire to be contrary. She blushed slightly when Karone glared at her. _I wouldn't hate you if weren't a mirror. Maybe that's a lie._

_Blush. Look away. Let somebody else come to your defense. _They believe in chivalry.

"I don't know, poisoning might be better than replicated food..."

_Thank you, Zhane._

"Please, help yourselves." _Sit. Eat. Oh, I am going to pay for this later. _

_Smile. Listen to the chatter. Don't talk about fighting. Smile. Don't talk about strategy. Poor little princess rescued from the other side. She's only been cold because she was too afraid to come out of her shell. Smile. Amazing what new clothes and a little bit of time can do for a person. Maybe it's abrupt, but hey, isn't that the way it's always worked? Smile. Good is good. Smile. Bad is bad. Smile. The good will always be good, the bad will always be bad. Smile._

_Don't pull away. Let Karone hug you. Let them touch you. Breathe. Breathe through the memories. Breathe. Center. Don't let him win. _

_Make the first steps. They're still wary, but not nearly so wary as before. You're winning._

Ashley approached again, looking suitably chagrined. "Thank you, Ketana. I'm sorry I..."

"Don't worry about it." _Words spoken, gracious and forgiving, rewarded with a shy smile from the other. So easily manipulated._

_God, I hate myself so very, very much._

They believe in redemption.

* * *

He leaned against the rock, barely registering the surrounding grove and waterfall. Tension had turned his neck and jaw muscles into wires. He was sure that he should be screaming, laughing, crying, anything – and found that he was not. He only sat, hands clenching and unclenching, waiting. 

She almost glowed in the moonlight, a white specter drifting through the forest.

"Karone has graciously decided that I may have un-chaperoned run of the grove again," she said. The warmth, the smile – all of it was gone, exactly as he knew that it would be.

"Missed you at dinner."

He found himself studying her dispassionately, as if seeing her for the first time. Somewhere it registered to him that the scar on her cheek was missing, and had been since Karone's dictate. He tried to speak. Couldn't.

"Fancy some practice?"

Still couldn't. He tried to dredge up anger or disgust at what she had become, and found instead admiration of her skill and resilience. 'We're both of us completely insane,' he decided, and found that the idea wasn't quite as off-putting as he would have expected.

"Are you all right?"

"Impressive," he said, noting the surprise that flashed in her eyes.

"I am very good at lying," she said. "I believe I tried to tell you that."

"Why are you doing this?" he asked, standing up slowly, wincing at legs gone numb.

She looked at him, as if to say that he should already know the answer. "They're none of them ready to accept what I am and what I have done. I will not spend the rest of my life a prisoner for 'protection.' I need to be able to fight, Red. I would think you would understand that."

He did, more than he was willing to admit. "So you will lie to everyone you know just to be able to kill."

She was silent for a moment. "I thought I wouldn't have to lie to you. Apparently I was wrong. Do you want me to lie to you?"

"No."

"Then why are we still talking about this?" she asked.

There was still one thing that he had to know. "How can you lie to them like that?"

"Very easily," she said, and he knew that it was a lie. He just wanted to know that she did, too.

"So you can easily smile to them, easily make them believe what they want to believe, easily let them touch you—"

"So that's what this is about," she said, in a tone that made him go completely cold. In a flash he saw the weight of terrible things hanging on her soul, and knew his mistake. She pressed him against the rocks, first with her lips and then with her body, moving in ways that made him near mad with desire. With his last shred of control he pushed her away.

She was shaking, almost crying. "Is that what you want?"

"Ketana, that's not what I meant—"

"Is that what you want? I've paid this price before, I can pay it again."

He could only stare at her, dumbfounded. This was not at all what he had been expecting.

"I do hope I have not offended your delicate sensibilities," she said, eyes flat. "Well? Where do you want me? Here? Your quarters? Mine? Prove Ashley right, make me your whore. You won't be the first, my dear, and probably not the last. Use the body if you have to, only let me go when you're through."

"What did they do to you?" he asked, again immediately regretting his words.

"Oh, have I outraged your sense of nobility? Go, tell Karone that I lie. While you're at it, tell her what you did," she spat. "I'm sure she'd love to know what her brother is capable of."

"We all have our lies, Ketana," he said, gently, taking a step toward her. "I didn't mean—" The step had been a mistake. He blocked the blow she launched at him, and locked her wrists. They stood there for a moment, and he watched as she reined herself in. When he sensed that she was about to offer an apology, he reversed the grip and shoved her back. She recovered easily, ready for his attack. It was exactly as he had intended, a situation similar to what she had done for him the week before.

After the first bout there was an unspoken transition from actual fight to training. Whenever one of them used a technique the other was unfamiliar with, they would stop long enough to learn it before moving on. Few words were spoken, though they kept a light mental contact for teaching and to keep from doing any actual damage to each other. As the night wore on, their tentative bond grew deeper. Andros was very careful to hide his sadness that the only human contact she was comfortable with came from brawling.

They lay next to each other on the grass, panting, as the first rays of dawn crept over the mountain. Their last match had ended with a pin, and neither had yet recovered enough to start again.

"Thank you."

He looked over at her, not entirely sure he had heard her correctly.

"Any time," he said, unsure of what else he could say.

"You may come to regret those words."

"Probably," he teased.

She smiled, a real smile. His heart skipped a beat as an incredible joy spread through him.

"Is that a smile?"

"Possibly," she said, smile widening.

"We definitely need to damage each other more often, then," he said. He was completely and utterly exhausted, and completely and utterly content. It wasn't going to last, and he knew it, but for a moment the world was perfect.

"If I could move, I would hit you," she said. The smile faded slightly, and she looked at something that only she could see. "Thank you," she repeated. "I needed that."

"I thought you might. Though I'll admit that things didn't go precisely as planned," he said, biting his lip before continuing. "I wanted to know that you weren't entirely comfortable with lying to people. I never meant..."

She pulled herself slowly to sitting position, and looked down at him. "I am very good at lying," she said again. "There are a lot of times that I wish that I was not – and just as many when I am grateful that I am. I'm not comfortable with the fact that I have to lie to your – our –" she amended awkwardly, "friends, but I will do what I have to do."

"Are you so sure that you have to lie?"

"We all have our lies, Red," she said, pointedly echoing him.

"Ah," he said, wondering for the umpteenth time why she would not refer to him by name.

"Do you still want me to lie to you?" she asked, shaking him from his reverie.

"I never did," he said, wondering where she was going with this.

"Are you sure? It wouldn't be that hard, actually. It might even help," she said, playing with the grass under her fingers, watching him intently. When he didn't immediately answer, she slowly slid one hand down his chest, drawing herself closer. With supreme effort he caught her hand, halting her.

"I don't want you to lie to me, Ketana," he whispered.

"I'm glad," she said, laying down beside him close enough that he could feel the heat radiating off of her body.

As the first rays of sunlight hit the mountains on the far side of the valley, both were sleeping soundly.


	12. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve: "What happened?"

Content and groggy from his first good night's sleep in ages, Andros made no move to rise on waking. He looked over to where Ketana had been sleeping, not in the least surprised to find that she was gone. Lacing his hands together behind his head he stretched his sore and bruised muscles, taking the grove in as he contemplated the night before.

He had expected to wake up with regrets. He had expected the part of him that still remembered what it was to have been an innocent boy in love with an innocent girl to be appalled at how he had deliberately picked a vicious fight, appalled at how she was also bruised and wounded by the end of the night. It surprised him to find that voice a faint whisper, rather than the self-righteous roar he had expected.

He found that he accepted what he – they – had done. She had needed it, and when he was honest with himself, he had needed it too. While it wasn't as fully imprinted in him as it was in her, captivity had left the need to fight in both of them.

Her unexpected reaction about being touched did bother him, and as he had slept his mind had put together a very disturbing picture. A terrible realization stole his contentment, constricted his muscles with anger. In his time with the rebels he had seen what could be done to destroy a soul, knew the tools that were most effective to break an innocent heart. Fighting to keep an endless string of scenarios from playing through his mind, he kicked himself for not recognizing it sooner. He had no idea what he was going to say to her when he saw her again, or if he should even say anything at all.

He stood, slowly, worse off than he had first thought. Figuring that Ketana was the same way, he headed for the medbay.

* * *

Her alarm went off far too early. Ashley moaned, wishing that she hadn't moved the silly thing across the room. She'd had to, as her nights had become increasingly sleepless. If she didn't force herself to get up to turn it off she wouldn't get up until someone came to get her, and she didn't really feel as if she needed to be yelled at for a third time this week. She moaned again when she tried to move, feeling as if she had spent the night being hit by blunt instruments.

A shower, two Excedrin and a cup or two of coffee later she felt slightly better, though she was going to have to get more concealer soon if she was going to continue to be able to hide the circles under her eyes.

She shrugged off her mother's concerned questions, and barely listened to Cassie's excited review of a new band that she had discovered as they walked to school. She couldn't explain her insomnia or her strange aches. Neither could she explain the undercurrent of rage and hurt that had been clouding her thoughts for the last two weeks. It always seemed to intensify when she was around Ketana. Two weeks. Two weeks since Ketana had joined them, and Ashley still couldn't spend a day without wanting to rip someone's face off, preferably Ketana's. The feeling was really starting to bother her. Ashley had always thought of herself as a forgiving, compassionate person. So what was different now? It wasn't about her broken hands anymore, she was fairly certain that she had come to terms with that. So what was it?

The bell rang, and Ashley looked up to find that Cassie was already gone. Trying to put her mind on the day and not her strange behavior, she headed for classes.

For a brief moment, she caught a glimpse of a breathtakingly handsome sandy-haired boy through the crowd of students. He smiled at her, and a jolt of electricity shot through her entire body.

'_Wow...'

* * *

_

"Well, good morning everyone, how are you all today?" Zhane asked, taking a perverse pleasure in addressing the empty mess hall. Ketana making dinner for them the night before had been the exception rather than the rule; they hadn't all been in the same room for nearly a week now. He had barely seen Karone since their fight, and he was fairly certain that she was avoiding him. Zhane had never had the chance to apologize, even though he wasn't entirely sure that he should. Ketana had definitely been avoiding everyone up until last night. Andros had taken to keeping insane hours, and even when Zhane did see him he was more preoccupied than usual. The Earthborn were meeting themselves coming and going as it was; none of them had time to stop in or stay over anymore. Alpha was busy with repairs, and in the last few days had moved past anything that Zhane or anyone else could conceivably help with.

"I slept very well, thank you. And the rest of you? Good, good," he said, shutting the door to food dispenser a little harder than was necessary. He sat down and poked at his scrambled eggs and toast unenthusiastically.

"Incoming message, secure channel," DECA said, causing Zhane to jump and drop his fork.

"Uhh... right. Thanks. On screen in here, please," Zhane said, brushing bits of egg from his lap and heading for the viewscreen.

A familiar and sorely missed face filled the screen. "Hey-la, little brother."

Zhane's smile was a mile wide. "Etarin!"

* * *

It surprised her how guilty she felt leaving him, though he had looked so peaceful she really hadn't had the heart to wake him. During the night their mental bond had reformed almost to the point it had been at five years earlier. She wasn't entirely sure if she was comfortable with that, but at the same time she wasn't about to give it up. Ketana headed back for the ship, laughing at herself, at the whole situation. She was almost giddy.

'_The junkie after her fix...'_

She giggled, stumbling against a tree, an all too familiar tugging at the corners of her mind. '_Oh, no...'_

She collapsed against the tree as the attack hit, barely managing to slam a shield around her mind to keep Andros from being pulled into her hallucination as well. Steeling her mind, she fought it as long as she could, preparing her mind as she did. She prepared for visions that didn't come. Instead, her mind showed her scene after scene of happier days, innocent times – the life that she could never reclaim.

And somehow, that was worse.

* * *

Somewhere around mid-morning, Ashley's mood brightened considerably. This had been happening periodically, for a short period of time she would feel as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from her shoulders, before it came crashing down on her again. It was a nice reprieve, though she hated knowing that it wasn't going to last.

The lecture was boring, and she turned her attention to the margins of her notebook, remarkably still blank. She usually filled the pages with sketches, fashion designs, or side conversations with which ever of her friends was closest. Last semester's margins had been primarily taken up with Andros' name, or Cassie teasing her about it.

She twirled the pen in her hand, not knowing what to do. She hadn't been particularly inspired to design anything lately, and somehow doodling Andros' name just didn't feel right anymore. It had been fun to daydream about the shy, sweet, slightly dorky and beautiful alien boy. It was less fitting to daydream about the new intensity in his eyes, the easy grace and confidence in his steps, the hard lines of his...

She banged her head on the desk in frustration, ignoring the whispers and stifled giggles around her. She wasn't sure that she really wanted these thoughts: they were worse than the continual anger, in their own way. As if on cue, the now too familiar feelings crashed over her.

The pen began to move, big bold letters across the top of the page.

_F_

_U_

_C_

"Miss Hammond? Are you listening?"

* * *

"We caught a break today, thought I'd check in and make sure that you were still alive," Etarin said, his smile just as wide as Zhane's. "I hear you're still running with the Earthborn. Hell of a group."

"Yep. Though I haven't determined the best way to break the news to Cassie about you being the Phantom," Zhane teased. With the initial surprise of seeing his brother again fading, Zhane was more than a little shocked to see lines of care and worry etched into his brother's face.

"Let her have her dreams," Etarin said, and Zhane privately agreed. While his brother was a good man, he was also eleven years older than Zhane – something Zhane was fairly certain Cassie hadn't counted on. Etarin continued, "I suspect TJ would rip my head off, anyway. Or Vasa would."

"Probably," Zhane said, and they shared a laugh at that. "Vasa?"

"My second and my lover. A good man," Etarin said, comfortably and openly bisexual as many were on their home planet.

"He'd better be," Zhane said, smiling.

"Speaking of, I hear you finally pulled Karone back to our side, is that true?"

"Yep again, though that was more Ketana's doing than ours. We just sort of got ourselves captured and went along for the ride," Zhane said, trying to hide his anxiety about Karone. They'd barely spoken since their fight.

Etarin smiled. "I cannot tell you how glad I was to hear that Ketana is with you. She sacrificed herself so my crew could get away, did she tell you that?"

Zhane shook his head.

"We've been looking for ways to get her back ever since, but now... Andros still with you?"

"Yes. Though as far as I can tell, they've been avoiding each other."

"Doesn't matter," Etarin said, staring past the screen, a slight smile on his face. "It won't take long."

"What are you—"

"Nothing," Etarin said, focusing on Zhane again. "How are you and Karone holding up, by the way?"

Zhane shifted uncomfortably, smile fading. "Not so hot. We had a massive fight about Ketana a week ago, and haven't really talked since."

"About Ketana?"

"During a training exercise she locked the rest of us in the ship while she and Andros fought – for a while there we were sure that one of them was going to end up dead. I mean, they weren't even using inhibitors. Karone flipped out, ordered Ketana off the field, off duty, and basically placed her under house arrest. She only gave Ketana permission to go outside last night, after Ketana made a big show of being normal again. I just... I just couldn't believe that she would turn on Ketana like that, as if she hadn't been launching attacks against Earth for the last year."

"Ah," was all that Etarin said, linking his fingers and staring at his brother.

"This is the part where you bestow some incredibly insightful and helpful brotherly wisdom, 'Rin."

"I wish I could," Etarin said. "How'd Ketana take it?"

"No idea. She disappeared for a week, and when she came back it was if five years never happened."

"Doesn't surprise me," Etarin said, looking intently at him. "Is she worth it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Is Karone worth being angry about?"

Zhane started to protest, then fell silent as he realized what his brother was hinting at.

"If you decide that she is worth fighting for, then do. When you do get angry with her – and believe me, you will, there is no such thing as a perfect relationship – talk to her. For Power's sake don't let it fester. That will only hurt you."

Zhane smiled weakly in thanks, mind racing.

"And I have to hurt the people who hurt my little brother," Etarin said, leaning forward mock threatening.

Zhane smiled more fully. "Only if I get to hurt the people who hurt you."

Etarin laughed, and then looked off screen as a klaxon sounded. "I have to go. Take care of yourself out there."

"You too," Zhane said, hesitated, then said, "I love you."

"Love you too."

Zhane stared at the dark screen for a long time, torn between joy of speaking to his brother, and worry. He had no idea what that alarm had meant; it may have been a meeting, it may have been an approaching enemy fleet. Firmly telling his imagination to be quiet, he finished breakfast and cleared the table, heading off to see Karone.

Instead, he came around the corner to find Andros limping into the med bay.

"What happened?"


	13. Chapter Thirteen

A/N: Sorry the update is delayed, but the person who was planning to update for me literally found themselves in a war zone. Now that I'm back I'm going to try to get back to a semi-regular update schedule, but as my life recently is completely ruled by Murphy's Law, I make no promises (wish that I could). So please stay tuned, and enjoy!

* * *

Chapter Thirteen: Calm

He spent most of the trip back to the ship wondering if anyone had seen their match, knowing that Karone and Ashley would probably kill them if they found out. He had to hope that the ship wasn't running standard surveillance in the vale, and if it was he'd need to destroy the records. He wondered also, if Alpha would still be running interference for them.

It seemed a lifetime ago now, but when she had turned sixteen Ketana had become fair game for the Imperial press. A press that was desperate for stories about the first ranger princess in nearly a century. Unfortunately this had also been the time their relationship had started to blossom toward love; and about the time the four of them had started out on actual missions.

They had slipped up only once; someone managed to get a picture of the two of them embracing very early on. After a very stern lecture from Tyren about the dangers of being seen, a frantic spin campaign by the palace press corps, and a very, very stern lecture from Ketana's parents that had both of them swearing off physical companionship forever, both of them had learned to be careful about what they did together. The wild speculation about their relationship eventually calmed down, and her parents had allowed their relationship to continue only on the grounds that no one ever knew – and on the grounds that it would eventually have to end.

That end was to have been the day after her eighteenth birthday, an end to many things. The picture taken in front of the fountain had been important to all of them, because it had been the last day that all four of them would be together in the foreseeable future. During the six months leading up to that day, they had been brought closer and closer to Kerova itself as Ketana started attending more and more political functions. After the ceremony, she would become an inactive ranger and take up political duties; Karone would have continued on the command fast track and perhaps some day have taken over the Academy from their parents; Zhane would have returned to Dae Etha to train to some day take over as Lord Marshal from Etarin; and Andros...

Andros had been assigned to duties on the outer rim, duties that quite ironically would have led him past Earth on a fairly regular basis. It had been hinted that he would be training for covert operations with the Elites, but that hadn't meant anything to him at the time. In retrospect, Ketana's parents had tried to be as gentle as possible, allowing them to remain together far longer than many people thought wise. They had trusted in time – for Andros remembered with an amused smile that his first tour of duty would have been ending just about now – and a lack of communication to quench the fires of what they had seen as an infatuation. During that time Ketana would be paraded in front of the leaders of many of the more powerful systems as a potential mate for their own children. Arranged marriage would never be mentioned, and Ketana would retain ultimate veto power, but her marriage would be an opportunity to strengthen the Empire. Regardless, a daughter as loyal as Ketana could be persuaded that a union was in the Empire's best interest or perhaps new love would begin on its own. The possibilities were endless.

Perhaps if the political climate hadn't been so volatile at the time, no one would have cared if the bastard son of an unknown father –

"What happened?"

Andros looked up in surprise; he'd been so lost in his own thoughts that he hadn't registered Zhane's presence. A thousand plausible lies began filtering through his mind. _'Stop it. He is my oldest and best friend. Besides, there's no one around to care what Ketana and I do anymore.'_

"Late night... okay, so an all night sparring match."

"With Ketana?"

"Who else?"

"Wow. Well, color me impressed. Though, whether that's at your stamina or your stupidity I'm not sure," Zhane said, helping Andros to the nearest bed and starting basic scans. "And color you bright red. I didn't know you blushed anymore."

"Neither did I," he said, leaning back as the ship's nanites began to heal his body.

"Karone's going to flip," Zhane said, after a moment.

"I'm, ah... kind of hoping that she doesn't find out," Andros said.

"Find out what?" Karone said, appearing in the doorway. "DECA told me you were in here."

_'Oh, bloody **hell**.'_ For a moment he could swear he saw Alpha in the hallway, and wondered if the robot had arranged all of this. "Ahh... can you promise me you won't get upset?"

"No," Karone said, coming into the room to get a better look at him, pushing him back down onto the med bed when he tried to get away. "What did you do?"

"Brilliant," Andros muttered, really wishing that he had thought to ask Ketana how she wanted to proceed with whatever it was that they were proceeding with. She'd shut off their link abruptly during the morning, he hoped she wasn't regretting what they'd done. "So, basically—"

"Basically we spent the entire night attempting to kill each other," Ketana said, leaning casually on the doorway. "It was great fun."

_'Hail, hail, the gang's all here...'_ Andros was seized with a tremendous desire to laugh at the absurdity of it all, but wisely kept silent. He noticed a cut across her palm, one that he was certain he hadn't given her. _'Another memory attack? So that's why...'_

"After I—" Karone started, clearly angry.

"Don't. Please don't," Ketana said, interrupting. She looked tired, almost defeated, and he ached to see what little progress they'd made seemingly erased. At least she was coming clean. "I played your game. I played nice so you would let me out." For a split second her eyes met his, and her mask broke. "I don't want to have to lie to you, Karone. I'm not who you remember me to be, and I can't be. And the sooner you figure that out the better it's going to be for all of us."

"You hurt my brother—"

"I started it," Andros said, quietly. _'No more hiding._' Not from their friends, not from his sister. "We were just sparring. Nothing more."

Karone stared at them both, looking very much as if she had just been punched.

"You asked me to stay," Ketana said, sounding at once very old and very young. "And I believe that you, all of you, can help me. But please... please don't force that other life on me again. I can't – I could do it, you know. I could lie to you. But I'm tired, Karone," she paused, looking for a moment as if she might be sick. "I am so tired of lying."

"You must think that I'm a terrible person," Karone said in a tiny voice, after a very long moment. Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes.

"No. I've seen a lot of terrible people, and believe me you don't hold a candle to them," Ketana said, managing a lopsided grin. Karone reached out to her, as if to hug her, and Ketana pulled away. "I—I'm sorry. It's just that I don't exactly feel comfortable being touched right now. I'll get over it, but..."

Karone paled. "I'll, um... I'll let you two get patched up again, and then..."

"And then we'll meet in the mess hall in a bit and have some lunch, yes?" Zhane said, gently taking Karone by the arm and leading her from the room.

"Nicely played," Andros said, and was surprised when she glared at him. "Whoa, there. I'm not accusing you of faking. I just meant that it was good to see you reach out to them."

"Thanks," she said, sitting gingerly on a bed. "DECA, could you dim the lights a bit?"

"Another attack?" Andros said, immediately by her side.

"Yeah. Sit back down, will you? Alpha should be down in a minute – yes, I think he planned this too – and I don't really feel like trying to figure out which one of the three of you is actually you," she said, closing her eyes.

He sat back down, and was silent, a thousand questions running through his mind that he wouldn't ask. Now was not the time to be bringing up old wounds.

"Well, what is it?" she asked after a few moments.

"What?"

"You want to ask me something, I can feel it. So ask it, or shield yourself better," she said, sounding irritated. She quickly added, "Sorry, I'm not really fit to be around people right now."

He sat back, shielding his mind tighter and debating. Until now he had had a strict hands off policy concerning Ketana and her past, feeling that it was better for her to decide to tell him than for him to outright ask. Still...

"I saw the past," she said suddenly.

"Sorry?"

"These attacks, if that's what you're wondering about, are triggered by moments of intense emotional stress or they can be activated from an outside source. They trap me in crystal clear memories of the past, usually memories of the last five years," she said.

"I see."

"This morning, though," she trailed off. "This morning I saw the past before that. I saw us as the children that we were." She turned toward him, and he could see tears in her eyes as well. "And... it was worse."

"Oh, Keti..." he said, using her pet name for the first time in years.

She made a sound halfway between a sob and a laugh. "When I saw the three of you in here, I just couldn't – I couldn't lie anymore."

He moved toward her.

"Don't. Please don't," she whispered, voice choked.

Aching, he sat back down on the bed as Alpha rushed into the room.

* * *

Cassie found Ashley in one of the bathrooms, sobbing incoherently, unable to explain what had happened to make her do so. Gently, she wrapped her arms around her friend and reached for her communicator.

* * *

"Drink this," Alpha said, handing her a large glass full of neon green liquid. She obediently took the glass and drained it. Lying back, she tried very hard not to look at Andros.

_'WEAK!'_ her mind screamed at her, telling her that she was weak for letting her guard down, weak for allowing them to get close to her, weak for dropping her defenses so soon._ 'WEAK!'_

_'You are not weak,'_ another tentative mental voice said, though this one was thoroughly masculine. In the dim light over the robot's shoulder she could see compassion in deep brown eyes. For a split second she wished that he reviled her, for she thought that would be so much easier.

After a brief but massive internal struggle, she reached out to take his waiting hand.

* * *

Ketana's words and appearance had shaken Karone to the very core of her soul. She had been struggling with her decision for the past week, and had thought of going to Ketana or to Zhane a thousand times. Each time she had stopped, unable to face them. Was it pride? She wasn't sure, anymore. One of the things the Academy had worked so hard to teach her was not to second-guess her decisions. But the last week had made it painfully obvious that sticking to a decision out of no other reason than to not to second guess was dangerous, if not downright stupid.

She was so unsure of herself, lately. Like Ketana, she had been a chosen weapon of the other side, but unlike Ketana, she had been compelled to everything that she had done, either through a haze of false memories, or under the control of a chip.

A mindless puppet.

The situation after Ketana and Andros' very public fight had been very tense, and at the time she didn't think that her brother was in the right mind to be making any sort of decisions involving Ketana. She had stepped forward and assumed command of the team and in the week since no one had challenged her. TJ and the rest of the Earthborn had been so blindsided by the shifting timelines that none of them had even thought to ask for command; Zhane had never had any aspirations toward leading the team; if Andros was upset at her impromptu take over he hadn't said anything; and she was fairly certain that Ketana wouldn't have taken leadership even if it had been offered. Still, the more she considered her actions, the more she realized that she had needed something that she could be in control of. Her relationship with everyone else was awkward, at best. Ketana and Andros were markedly changed, and she was still attempting to recover from the shock of seeing them as they were now. Three years of both her and Zhane's lives were missing, while three years of Andros and Ketana's lives had obviously been lived in some sort of hell. Her need to be able to control the events around her had very nearly driven both of them further away.

In truth, she almost felt closer to the Earthborn, after their brief acceptance of her before the asteroid had threatened Earth. They still seemed to trust and like her just because of who she was – a humbling fact.

Then there was Zhane. It seemed that he had barely changed, and, despite what she had faced, neither had she. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, studying him as they walked to the mess hall. His eyes focused down, the usual bounce was gone from his step. They hadn't said anything since leaving their friends, though their silence was not entirely awkward.

_'Or is this the calm before the storm?'_ she wondered, both amused and worried at the thought. They'd made a few, tentative steps towards restoring their old relationship, steps that had been erased with a single fight. The attraction was still there, of course; it had been even when neither of them remembered each other.

Her hand went to a plain silver band around her thumb – a gift, the ring he had inherited from his father. It had been assumed that the two of them would wed sometime after he completed his training with Etarin. They had never had to hide, and the press had made much of the two of them being childhood sweethearts.

Now, five years – or, more accurately for the two of them, two years later, she didn't know where she stood with this boy. Or was it man, now? She winced slightly at that thought, for all that it was accurate.

Suddenly she felt terribly, terribly young.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen: "Oh, no."

He hated that they were silent as they walked down the hall together.

He'd hated silence in general since he was six, when somber, quiet people had come to tell him that his parents had gone away and were never coming back. He'd been taken away from the laughter of his friends and the noise of Kerova, and sent home to the place that had never really been his home. It had been so silent and somber there that he had taken to running around banging pots and pans just to relieve some of the tension. When someone took his "instruments" away from him he would scream until finally someone went to get Etarin. Etarin had been the only one who could calm him, but he had been increasingly holed up in meetings and training sessions. Then one day Etarin had come to him and explained that he, also, was going very far away, but hoped to return. Zhane had promised to stop making so much noise, but Etarin had left anyway, and Zhane had not spoken at all until the day his brother returned. Etarin had returned from avenging their parent's death a changed man. Zhane had refused to even go near his brother that first day, and the look in Etarin's eyes when he hadn't haunted him to this day. The brothers had barely exchanged words for a few weeks; then Etarin had finally bowed to pressure and sent his precious younger brother to be fostered with Andros and Karone.

The memories of the terrible weight on his brother's shoulders echoed at him in the way Karone was clenching her jaw, and he hated that too. He remembered the dark shadows in Etarin's eyes and prayed Karone would never get to that point. And he remembered how those shadows were lifted the first time Zhane had been able to make 'Rin laugh.

So he did what he always did.

He told a joke.

And Karone smiled.

Zhane rejoiced. He could do it, and if he could make Karone smile he could make her laugh, and if she laughed, Andros might smile, and if Andros smiled... He could do it, just as he had before, just as he had when he discovered that he could still make his brother laugh.

_"Is she worth it?"_ He heard Etarin's words echo in his mind. Zhane knew, somewhere in another part his mind, that if he went back to being her jester the next time he disagreed with her it would be easier for her to ignore him, and eventually she might not listen to him at all. He knew he was running the risk of trapping himself again, of being the one that no one ever took too seriously, no matter how many strategy games, training bouts, or debates he won. He was the funny guy, and funny guys aren't dangerous. But she was laughing now. She was _laughing, _and he was the cause of her joy.

It was one of the sweetest sounds he had ever heard.

And for a while, he was happy. She laughed, and even started telling some stories of her own. It felt so good just to sit and share a meal, to talk and laugh. Zhane hadn't realized how much he himself had missed companionship: he couldn't imagine what it must have been like for her, surrounded by monsters. It wasn't like the old times, her laugh was more guarded now, her smiles tentative. Every word, even when they were at ease, was measured, as if she didn't want to give away too much. But still... If they could just hold on to this moment of peace –

"Viator?" Cassie's voice crackled over the speakers. "Viator, come in – somebody _please_ – Ashley's hurt."

* * *

"Incoming wounded," DECA said.

They didn't have the chance to mess it up, and for that Ketana was grateful. Alpha had barely pronounced her fit to leave before DECA's voice sounded through the comm. Andros was gone before either of them had the chance to ruin their moment of sweet agony. He was halfway across the room before the glimmers from the teleporter faded away. Andros's eyes made his apology.

Some habits die hard.

"What happened?" Alpha asked, as he helped Cassie lay Ashley out on another diagnostic bed. Ketana sat up, fighting a momentary wave of dizziness.

"I don't _know_," Cassie said, struggling and failing to stay calm. "I found her alone in the bathroom, she was crying, and then she just collapsed – I thought... I don't know, but—"

"It's all right, Cassie," Andros said gently. He put an arm around Cassie's shoulders and pulled her out of Alpha's way. _'I will not be jealous,'_ Ketana told herself firmly. "She'll be all right. Take a few deep breaths."

"Did you see anything unusual at the school?" Ketana asked. "Anyone who didn't belong?"

"No, nothing. She was okay when I saw her earlier, she even seemed better than she's been since... well, since you got here. It was like someone had flipped a switch," Cassie said.

Ketana shifted uncomfortably. "So she's been acting differently since I got here?"

"Well, yeah, but you... I mean," Cassie shifted uncomfortably.

"I broke her hands," Ketana said, avoiding Andros's eyes.

"I am not entirely sure what—" Alpha stopped suddenly. "This morning, when the, ah, switch was flipped, what time would you say that was?"

"Um, around ten or so?" Cassie asked. "What does that have to do with anything?"

_'Around ten... that would have been about the time that – no way,'_ Ketana thought.

"I am unsure," Alpha said, studying Ashley's mental patterns intently, matching them against something that Ketana couldn't quite make out. "I am going to erect a force field around her, one that will block most forms of mental energy. I am not going to rule out the possibility that she might be under some sort of attack or coercion from that avenue."

"I'm not sure—" Ketana started to say. Alpha flipped the switch, and Ketana sank to her knees under a wave of emotion. Dimly, she was aware of Andros and Cassie telling Alpha to turn it off.

Her voice strangled in her throat, and when she spoke again even she was afraid of the anger in her voice. "No, damn it! Leave the damn shield where it is!"

Silence descended, but Ashley remained safe behind a shimmering wall of energy.

Ketana looked up, eyes blazing and taking more pleasure than she should at seeing all of them flinch. "Why the _fuck_ didn't you tell me she was a channeler?"

* * *

Zhane marveled at the sight of Ketana glaring at Alpha. He was about half surprised that the robot hadn't yet burst into flames – and more than a little worried that with Ketana's new talents that turn of phrase might actually be accurate. He reached for Karone, sensing her immediate anger at Ketana's words, but was too late. Suddenly the room was full of sound, and Zhane was alone in the doorway, watching. Karone had marched up to Ketana and proceeded to lay into her for her choice of words, Andros was alternately trying to explain to an increasingly angry Cassie what was going on while pleading with Karone and Ketana both to calm down. Ketana was less than thrilled with Karone, and made it known, while still trying to get an answer from Alpha.

"Guys? Guys!" he shouted, but to little effect. This had the opportunity to turn ugly very, very quickly.

"All right, _that's enough_!" Alpha's voice was so loud that all of them were momentarily stunned. "You're all rangers. _Now act like it_. Karone, please calm down. Take Cassie outside, and teleport the others there as well. By all means do _not_ bring them into the ship. Explain to them about gifts, and make sure that none of them leave until they bloody well know how to shield themselves. Tell them that Ashley's gift is channeling, and that she's been channeling Ketana – and that that is not Ketana's fault."

Karone's look was nearly as murderous as Ketana's had been, but she nodded abruptly and almost dragged Cassie from the room.

"Would you two mind waiting for me outside?" Alpha asked, indicating Andros and Zhane. Zhane looked at Andros, shrugged, and they both headed for the door.

"And me?" Ketana asked. Andros stopped, then Zhane, and both turned to watch.

"You, sit. And when Ashley wakes – " Alpha paused long enough to reach through the field and administer a stimulant, "which should be soon now, you are going to explain to her what has happened. Then you are going to teach her how to properly shield herself so that we don't have this problem."

"You have got to be kidding. You want me—" Ketana said, at the same time that Andros said, "I'm not sure that that is a good idea—"

"Your _team_ needs you. And if the two of you don't understand what that means anymore, then there is no place for you here."

For a terrifying moment, Zhane was certain that Ketana was going to leave.

"I would hate for Zordon to be disappointed in you," Alpha said, and the fight, but not the anger, left Ketana's face. She nodded curtly, and sat next to Ashley's bed.

Alpha turned to them. "You two were...?"

"Just leaving," Zhane said, grabbing Andros.

"You're putting a lot of faith in her," Andros said, when the three of them were alone in the hall. "Are you sure—"

"I am not the one sparring with her every night without the use of inhibitors," Alpha said calmly, and the expression on Andros's face was priceless. Zhane was seized by a thoroughly inappropriate urge to giggle, but was able to fight it down. "If you trust her with your own life, then why should _you_ not trust her with someone else's? Ketana won't willing hurt a teammate," Alpha continued. "She may fear that she will, but she will not. Zordon trusts her, as do I. We may simply need to kick her sense of self a few more times before she figures out that she is stronger than she believes."

Andros and Zhane looked at each other. There were several holes in Alpha's logic but neither of them were particularly willing to say anything. _'Possibly because we're just as crazy as he his, and want to believe in her just as much.'_ Zhane decided, then asked, "So what do you want us to do?"

"I was hoping that you might contact Etarin and Vasa Ili and ask them for their input on how to help her through this."

"Where are you going?" Andros asked, as Alpha started to leave them.

Zhane knew he saw a smile in the robot's unchanging faceplate.

"I? I am going to monitor the sickbay and make sure that Ketana does not hurt Ashley, inadvertently or otherwise."

* * *

She leaned on the edge of the diagnostic bed, arms crossed as she waited. Her eyes were riveted on the unconscious girl, both willing her to wake and praying that she would not. Ketana wanted nothing more than to run, to find a good fight and get really, really hurt.

She stood, pacing in the small space between them. _'Some day it's going to be Zhane, or 'Rin... or Andros lying on that bed or on the ground.'_ Ketana found herself longing for the days when she was running with 'Rin's rebels. Vasa had taught her enough to keep her sanity, Etarin sent her on all the missions she needed, and at night all three of them sat around sharing a bottle of some good hard liquor – or Kaylee's engine room concoctions when the supply shipments were running low. No one cared that she wasn't the Ketana-that-was, few if any of them had even a passing idea of who she had been. No one blinked when she was vicious during a fight, and personal problems were left outside of the ring. It had been a hard life, but every one of her companions had understood exactly what was at stake. They fought hard, played hard, and at the end of the day the only thing anyone cared about was that everyone was still all right – or that whoever wasn't was properly mourned. _'We weren't a bunch of unblooded kids,'_ she thought, stopping and staring down at Ashley. _'Powers, she's younger than I was when...'_ Slowly, Ketana sat down again, hands clenching and unclenching on the side of the bed. _'She's younger than I was. But all I can think about is turning her into someone like me.'_

Ashley stirred. _'I don't want to do this,'_ Ketana thought, body tensing. _'She's younger than I was, and she's lying unconscious in a med bay because of me.'_

Ashley sighed, and stretched. Ketana's stomach threatened to rebel.

_'She's younger than I was, and I don't care.'_

Ashley's eyes flicked open.

_'Oh my God.' _

"What happened?" Ashley asked, groggily, not quite focusing on her.

_'I don't care any more...'_

* * *

A great deal of the fuzziness in Ashley's head cleared when she saw the force field shimmering around her. She stifled her immediate reaction to sit up, and looked around cautiously, afraid to move her head. "Guys? Guys, what happened?" she looked around, hoping to see a familiar face. Her heart leapt into her throat when she saw Ketana sitting on the bed opposite her, and no one else.

_'Oh, no...'_

Ketana didn't even seem to notice that she was awake, she was staring at the floor and her shoulders were shaking. For a moment Ashley thought that she might be crying, until the sound burst out of Ketana's lips. It was laughter, the same terrible not-laugh that Ashley had heard before.

_'Oh, _no_...'_


	15. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen: "We're just friends."

There had been times in her life that Ashley had been more terrified, but none of them were coming to mind. Ketana had stopped laughing, but somehow the silence that was worse. She was sitting on the other bed now, legs dangling over the edge, head down.

"You are, of course, wondering why you are here, where the others are, and whether or not I am going to hurt you," Ketana said, without looking up.

"Umm... yeah, that would be a start," Ashley said.

"You are here because you're a Channeler – I'll explain – the others are somewhere 'safely' out of the way, and I am probably not going to hurt you – more than I already have," Ketana's voice was low and even, but Ashley didn't trust the calmness.

"Gee, thanks."

"So, here's the deal: those things that Earthlings dismiss, say, telepathy and telekinesis, are common occurrences pretty much everywhere else in the universe. All rangers have at least minor skill with both those traits, because those are things that take more mental discipline than innate talent. Do you follow?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Good. Now, in addition to skills that can be learned, some are blessed with talents that cannot be learned. There are Battle Mages – Karone's one – Healers, Truth Seekers, Far Seers and all those other things that you've probably read about in fantasy books. You've an extremely rare Gift," Ketana said, finally looking at her.

"Which is?" Ashley said quickly, to cover her own discomfort at the other girl's face. Ketana, what little of the person that Ashley had ever seen, was completely gone, hidden behind a terrible mask of composure.

"You're a Channeler. You can tap into the emotions of others, and do all sorts of things with the energy that comes from them," Ketana said. "You, specifically, were tapping into my emotions and leeching some of my excess energy. Because you weren't letting that energy go anywhere, it was affecting you."

"So, that's why I've been an angry insomniac?" Ashley said, immediately regretting her levity. _'I've been spending too much time around Zhane...'_

"Basically, yeah."

Some of Ashley's fear faded to anger – an anger that felt much more her own than anything she'd felt since meeting Ketana. "And if you guys knew about this, why didn't you say anything about it before now?"

Ketana shifted uncomfortably. "Zordon's had things in place to protect you from external attacks from day one. Both Alpha and Zordon judged this to be sufficient protection from any external forces, and it was stronger and more reliable than taking the time to teach you how to do it yourselves. No one knew... Look, normally Zordon would have detected your Gift. I don't know why he didn't, or if he couldn't because of the spells, or whatever it was that happened."

Ashley took a second to process that, her fear continuing to fade as time passed. "So we've been blocked—"

"Shielded," Ketana corrected, rising and going to the console at the head of Ashley's bed.

Ashley considered craning her neck to keep watching her, but thought better of it. "Whatever. We've been shielded from the bad guys, but I...?"

"You, probably due to trauma, reached out to me, perhaps to better understand me. You established a link, didn't realize it, couldn't break it, and have been siphoning off my emotions since then. Are we clear?"

"But—" A thousand questions tripped at her tongue.  
"Are we clear?"

A chill ran down her spine. "Yeah—yes."

"Good. Now, Zordon has been keeping things from getting in." Ashley heard the muted beep of keystrokes as Ketana spoke. "I'm going to teach you how to keep _you_ from going out."

"So you live with that every day?" Ashley asked, as Ketana began to make more sense to her. Didn't make her like or trust her any more, but still...

Ketana didn't answer, but the steady keystrokes faltered, then resumed. "We'll begin by—"

"But—"

"Do you want to spend the rest of your life under that shield?"

"No."

"Then let's begin."

* * *

"Great. Thanks," Zhane said to the apologetic ensign. Etarin and Vasa were both out on patrol, and wouldn't be back until the next day at the earliest. The screen went blank, and he turned to Andros. "So now what?"

"We wait for tomorrow, I guess."

"And Ketana?" Zhane asked, watching his friend closely.

"I... I have an idea. But I'll need your help."

"What do you need?"

"I need you to distract Karone."

"Hmm..." Zhane said, a slow, thoughtful smile playing at his lips.

"In a way that will not involve me having to kick your ass tomorrow morning."

"Fine. Do I at least get details on what you and Ketana will be doing?"

"Maybe when you're older."

"Aww..."

* * *

Andros stood a little apart as Karone explained the situation to the Earthborn, and Alpha retested all of them for Gift potential. None of them showed any, but neither had Ashley. He studied the reactions of each of the Earthborn. Cassie had calmed down considerably, and was back to taking things with her usual pragmatism. TJ was as determined as ever to adapt to this new life. And Carlos... Carlos was staring straight back at him with an expression that was almost hostile. _'What in the 'verse?'_

"We'll work with you individually and give you some of the basics, just in case. Zordon's protection is still in place, so this is just a precautionary measure. We'll split into teams to work, I'll work with Cassie, Zhane with TJ, and Andros with Carlos," Karone said.

_'Well, this is going to be interesting,'_ Andros thought, as he and Carlos moved silently away from the others. Whatever problem Carlos was having, it was no longer visible as they worked together. Some time later, Ashley and Ketana appeared at the foot of the landing ramp. Cassie and the others immediately crowded around her, and after a nervous, strained nod of thanks at Ketana, Ashley greeted them warmly. Ketana melted away, and Andros started to follow her. Carlos stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"So what's going on here?" Carlos asked, releasing his arm after a tense moment.

"Umm... well, Ashley is apparently a channeler, and has been—"

"That's not what I mean. You and Ketana. Why are you going after her and not Ashley?" Carlos asked,

Andros didn't have an appropriate answer to that, and swallowed as the guilt and regret swamped his mind.

"You love her, don't you?" Carlos continued.

"We're just friends," Andros said, the old familiar lie ringing with more than the usual amount of truth.

"We're not dumb, Andros, and I'm kind of sick of being treated as if I am just because I grew up here. Come on, Lover's Bane? I did a little research. It only works if the person infected loves the person who's being touched. You two have a history."

"We're just friends, Carlos."

"Don't lie to me, man." Their gazes locked, and Andros found himself increasingly glad that his friend was remarkably mature and level headed for a teen. Still, there were some things that weren't his to share.

"We're just friends, Carlos, okay? We've only ever been friends, we're only friends now, we're only ever going to be friends ever. Get it?"

"What the hell is your problem? You've got Ashley—"

"Who, for the record, chased me," Andros said, immediately regretting it when pain momentarily took the place of anger in Carlos's eyes.

"Yeah, I know," the flow of his anger disrupted. "But... they both love you. And you act like neither one of them exists."

"Ketana and I..." Andros sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Look, it's complicated, all right? As for Ashley – she has this image of me that I can never be. I couldn't do it before, and there's no way I can do it now. I've hurt her enough already. I don't want to add to that. I should have broken it off a long time ago, but it was just so damn nice to have someone who – sorry."

"You should maybe, you know, tell her that it's over," Carlos said, and Andros could hear the struggle in his voice.

"I will. I'm sorry that—"

"Don't, okay? Just don't," Carlos said, and an uncomfortable silence settled between them, to be broken by Carlos asking, "And Ketana?"

"Officially? We're just friends, as I said." Carlos looked annoyed, and Andros was quick to add, "But please understand that that is all I am allowed to say, ever."

"Why?"

Andros took a breath, wondering how he was going to talk his way out of this, and paused. What did it matter any more? The Empire was gone, possibly forever. Carlos didn't care who Ketana was and what Andros wasn't, he was a friend who'd been thoroughly confused and unintentionally hurt.

He spoke dispassionately, almost as if relating the story of another. "My mother was sent out on patrol right before she was supposed to marry Karone's father. She disappeared for about four months, and when she returned she was a little over three months pregnant with me," Andros held up a hand to keep Carlos from commenting. "Wait, it gets weirder. She had been gone for four months, but she had aged about a year, and her ship was all but glowing with chronotron particles. My mother has no memory of what happened, but she absolutely refused to let them... _terminate_ her pregnancy. The rangers kept all of this under very tight wraps for political reasons, but there were always people who knew – enough to make things difficult for me. At any rate, Karone's father agreed to marry my mother, and claim me as his own son. There was a great deal of talk surrounding my early birth, but most people never suspected anything was wrong."

"So you don't know who your father is?" Carlos asked, stunned.

Andros shrugged. "No."

"Whoa."

"My mother assures me that, while she had no memory of that time, she doesn't feel that anything... well, traumatic happened. But the rangers have never really trusted me. If she and my father – I call him that any way, as he was father to me in all but the biological sense – hadn't been so influential I never would have been admitted to the academy. I know the rangers, and a few members of the Senate, have always kept a close eye on me, mostly because I was always so close to Ketana. So while most of the general public doesn't know, there are a lot of people who could make life very difficult for us if Ketana and I ever... got together." Somehow finally telling someone was less difficult than he had been anticipating.

"I thought your Empire was supposed to be some great diplomatic and free place," Carlos said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

"Yeah, you would think. But people get a little nervy when you put the bastard son of an unknown father side by side with their beloved Princess. I think everyone was always half afraid I was going to kidnap or kill her, even when I was a toddler. Especially after Darkonda got Karone." Very few people had said anything out right, beyond the occasional bully who knew more than he should, and the knowing looks of a half dozen or so of his teachers. To their credit, Ketana's parents had been fairly accepting of him. To a point.

"What do Karone and Zhane think of all this?"

"Zhane knows, and doesn't care. Karone... Karone has heard the rumors, and doesn't believe them. Neither of my parents had the heart to shatter her illusions, and neither do I. I am her brother, and nothing is going to change that."

"Wait, _what?_"

"Karone doesn't believe that I am not her father's son. She has a regrettable habit of believing what she wants to believe, sometimes."

"And Ketana?"

"She knows."

"Does she care?"

"Yes and no. She doesn't care in that... all right, five years ago we were in love, okay? And we could have gone public, damning the consequences because love conquers all, right? But we didn't, and that was her choice. She's been closely watched for her entire life and she's very aware of that. And it used to be that she wouldn't do anything to compromise that image," he said. "Now... I honestly don't know what she will do."

"Kind of like Ashley, huh? She always had to be perfect?"

"A bit, yeah."

"So where does that leave you two now?"

_'I have no idea...'_ Andros paused, choosing what to say. "Five years older and angrier. We've both seen and done some pretty messed up stuff."

"Do you still love her?"

"We're just fr—look, even if the Empire is gone now, some day it's going to be back," Andros said. "You do understand that what I've said here..."

"That's not an answer," Carlos said. "But I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks."


	16. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen: "...slipping."

Ketana's communicator chirped at her. She ignored it, and kept walking. It chirped again, and after a few moments she heard Karone's voice, faintly.

"Ketana? Ketana, I know you can hear me. You should come back to the ship now, we're having dinner."

She considered tossing the communicator aside, but pulled it from her belt instead. "Not hungry, thanks. Make my apologies, would you?"

"Are you upset about today?"

_'I almost completely destroyed the mental state of a member of your team. How do you think I feel?'_ Ketana bit the inside of her cheek and tried to calm down. "No. Forgive me, but I would rather be alone right now."

"Are you... are you sure that's a good idea?"

Ketana sighed. She knew that tone of voice. She knew that if she didn't go back now, she'd most likely be teleported back there against her will. "You know what? You're right. I'll be back in a bit."

"I could teleport you here, faster, so you won't miss dinner."

_'Damn it.'_ Ketana sighed again. "Yeah, sure."

She rematerialized on the ship, smiled, nodded and didn't listen more than she had to as Karone spoke. She knew that Karone meant well, but it didn't keep her from wanting to hit her. And the fact that she was having that thought... Ketana forced herself to breathe deeply, trying to keep a rein on her thoughts, correcting her thoughts as Vasa had taught her. It wasn't exactly helping, but it was keeping her from doing anything stupid.

Dinner was worse. The Earthborn were all being so perfectly sweet and caring and understanding, and it rang terribly hollow in her ears. Zhane was being his usual buoyant self, though every once in a while he cast apologetic looks at her. She couldn't quite bring herself to look at Andros: she couldn't stand any more pity or well-meant words tonight.

Even worse, she _really_ couldn't stand being in the same room with Ashley anymore. The Earthborn girl was so damn cheerful, so perky, so forgiving, and so close to everything that Ketana had been and could never be again.

_'Small wonder he loved you,'_ she thought, and tried not to be jealous. She was being ridiculous, and she knew it. Five years, numerous memory spells – she should be glad that he had found someone who made him happy. Shouldn't she?

Karone was being careful to include her in the conversations and Cassie filled her in on inside jokes as they told stories about their time together as rangers. Ketana did her best to smile and laugh and stay involved. She refused to join in or comment on the storytelling, afraid of sharing too much. A string of increasingly amusing scenarios ran through her head as she imagined their reactions if she told them some of the things she had seen and done.

Yet somehow, sitting a round a table with a group of normal people again awakened things in her that she thought were long dead. She remembered sitting up late with Karone and some of the other rangers, giggling and gossiping, and smiled. The smile faded, replaced by panic as she realized that she could barely remember the names, or even the faces of those once close friends. Cassie must have noticed her distress, as Ketana felt a comforting hand on her arm. Her reaction to this was very nearly violent, and she was barely able to stop herself from attacking the girl. She took a deep breath. The sheer anger that had accompanied her thoughts was terrifying. '_All they want to do is help me.'_

So she smiled, put her hand over Cassie's, and whispered, "Thanks."

Cassie beamed. And for a moment, it was almost worth it.

* * *

Cassie looked up briefly as Ketana and Karone joined them at the table, and then her eyes went back to TJ. It was good to see him relax a little, if only for a little while. He'd been pushing himself so hard lately, that their fledgling relationship had been pushed to the back burner. It felt like a lifetime since their morning meetings, since they'd played with Jackson in the park whenever they were near Earth, since their last kiss. In reality, it had barely been a month since everything had changed. There were only two new faces around the table, but it felt like four. It had been easier to accept the new Zhane, as he hadn't seemed to be affected too much by the change. But with Andros, Karone, and especially Ketana, it felt as if they were standing on shifting sand, wondering what was going to change or fall away next. TJ was reacting to this with the determination that had drawn her to him in the first place. She was proud of him, of all of her friends, for how well they had adjusted to another strange event in the string of strange events that had happened to them since they had become rangers. And yet it was that determination and dedication that was making it increasingly clear that there was no room for a "them" in their lives.

Her eyes stung, and she grabbed her glass and took a drink to cover. Nothing had been decided yet, she told herself, and lost herself in conversation, in watching the others, to hold the heartbreak away.

* * *

She was back, and he could have done a dance of joy around the table. Ashley was _Ashley_ again, and for Carlos that was the best thing in the world. He hoped it would last.

He felt guilty about his conversation with Andros, and hoped that he wasn't about to cause Ashley more heartache by confronting him about their relationship – or rather, their lack thereof. The more he thought about it, though, the less certain he was that his motives had been pure. He had no business demanding answers like that, and was extremely grateful that Andros had not asked anything in return.

Carlos found himself watching Andros and Ketana for any signs that the relationship they'd had five years ago was still there. He didn't see anything, but then again, he wasn't even sure what he was looking for. It wasn't really any of his business, but somehow he just needed to know. He wasn't exactly sure why: maybe it was some strange hope that love really did conquer all, or his genuine concern for Andros as a good friend, or maybe because Ketana had actually opened up to him a little bit, or...

"Hey, Carlos, you okay?" Zhane asked, looking concerned.

"I'm fine, just... got a lot on my mind," he said.

For a moment, Zhane looked as if he was going to push further. Instead, he smiled and said, "Thought I smelled smoke."

"Aw, come on, you can't come up with anything better than that?" Carlos asked. "You're slipping."

* * *

Karone looked around the table of smiling faces and was certain that she should be happy. The four of them were together again. There were new faces around the table, of course, and she cared for them as well. But they were _together_. It was just like old times, when Andros and Ketana had laughed and smiled.

When Zhane had told her that he loved her without the shadow in his eyes.

The night before Ketana's eighteenth, they had sat around this very table for hours. Towards the end, they'd been so tired they'd barely been able to keep their eyes open. None of them had wanted to leave, knowing that the next day would change everything. The extent to which it would change, of course...

Karone looked enviously over at Ketana, who was smiling at Cassie. Ketana had adjusted so quickly after Karone's few well-meant prods. Karone had been certain that if she could just get them all together again, it would be all right.

It wasn't.

They were together, but it couldn't erase the years, two _years_, that she had tried to enslave the Earth and murder the people around this table. It didn't matter to her that she had been under external influence: she had willing done these things. They'd taken everything, her past, her willpower, even her own identity.

But they were together again, and that should be enough, would be enough...

"Karone, you okay?" Zhane asked, and she melted under his smile.

She smiled in return. "Never been better."

...right?

* * *

TJ had excused himself shortly after dinner, on the pretext of wanting to check on a scan he'd been running. In reality, he'd found the service records of the four aliens, and had been desperate to sit down and read them ever since. It wasn't necessarily that he didn't trust them anymore, but rather that he was sick and tired of always getting the heavily censored version of the truth.

Alpha was nowhere to be seen when he got to the bridge, and TJ was relieved. "DECA, can you put Ketana's service record on screen?"

"Of course."

Her picture flashed onscreen, followed by a brief account of her time at the academy. She had graduated with honors, showing particular aptitude as a fighter pilot – surprisingly, she wasn't rated as that impressive of a fighter, nor was she listed as having any known gifts. Her short career as a ranger read pretty much exactly as she and the others had explained: traveling the galaxy with the other three and Tyren in the Viator solving minor disputes, before returning to Kerova for her ill-fated birthday. The bottom of the record read "deceased" in bold red letters, with a date that matched the one given for her birthday and a brief explanation "Casualty of the first battle for Kerova, killer unknown." Her record continued from there, as her morpher had continued to report that she was still alive for about a week longer. It then read as "Deceased: Executed in captivity."

"Can you tell me anything about the time Ketana spent as Shadow?" he asked.

"That data is currently unavailable."

"Of course it is," TJ muttered, then with a twinge of guilt said, "Show me Zhane's record, then."

Zhane's record read pretty much the same: he'd also graduated with honors, with high praise for his speed as a fighter and his skill at mediation. He was also listed as "gifted," possessing an affinity with anything electric. The rest of his record read pretty much the same as Ketana's, right up to the day that he'd been so critically wounded that he'd been placed in stasis. Attempts had been made to revive him, but apparently each time an attack or a complete lack of medical supplies had interfered. The service record went on to detail Zhane's exploits as the silver ranger, which TJ was of course familiar with. Some of his guilt melted away. Karone's record didn't reveal anymore than he already knew either, except that she was a gifted "battle mage" and was considered to have leadership potential. _'Guess that explains the purple lightning,'_ TJ thought. She was listed as "captured" but "inactive" during the three-year gap period.

On a whim, TJ called up his own record, and those of his friends. Interestingly, none of them were considered "full" rangers yet. He made a note to ask Andros about that. He paused at that thought. He'd been putting off looking at Andros's record, and he wasn't entirely sure why. The others had been so disappointingly uninformative that he almost didn't bother to look. "DECA... show me Andros's record," he said, finally, figuring that he probably wasn't going to learn anything anyway.

This record, however, continued past Ketana's birth date. TJ leaned forward, hungrily. Andros had fallen in with a group of rebels under the command of someone TJ had never heard of and whose name he couldn't even begin to wrap his tongue around. Then he'd been captured – _'Wait, what?'_ and held for three months before he'd been executed. _'Wait, **what**?'_ But there it was on the view screen, "Deceased: Executed in captivity." A postscript attributed this information to a malfunction in the morpher's biometric feed caused by atmospheric ionization – but the shock stayed with TJ as he read on.

Andros had been rescued by a larger group of rebels under the command of Sianna Corman. Andros had made quite the name for himself from there, quickly rising through the ranks to become Sianna's second in command, successfully leading dozens of raids on enemy positions and repelling just as many attacks. Mention was also made of his rivalry with an unnamed human female assassin working for the other side, a rivalry that was growing increasingly vicious. A month before the second battle for Kerova, the narrative was interrupted by another bold red line – "Deceased: Casualty of surprise attack at Agincourt V base." Another postscript explained that Andros had indeed died, but that a particularly skilled medic had been able to revive him. The last battle of note before TJ recognized anything was the second battle for Kerova, during which Andros had avenged Sianna Corman's death and won his own personal battle with the nameless assassin with one blow. _'Nameless assassin...'_ TJ's stomach turned to ice as a terrible, terrible thought occurred to him.

He heard footsteps, and quickly told DECA to close down the files as he left quickly through another door. It wasn't as if he'd been doing anything wrong... and yet he still felt as if he'd just looked at something he wasn't supposed to have knowledge of.

* * *

_'I am such a coward,'_ Andros thought, laughing politely at one of Ashley's jokes. She was such a sweet girl, and he hated himself for the heartache he had caused her and would cause her again tonight. He'd spent the better part of the meal trying to decide what to say to her to finally and definitively break it – whatever "it" had been – off. Not as if that would make things any easier...

Ketana wouldn't even look at him. It had always been like this. One would think that by now he would be used to the duality of their relationship. He'd been a little embarrassed at his stab of jealousy when he'd seen her take Cassie's hand earlier in the evening. Even when she hadn't been suffering, she'd rarely even touched his hand in public for fear of what people would say the next day. In private... in private they had always been different beings, and it was no different now. Right now, in that precious private time, he was what she wanted him to be: a silent sparring partner. That was going to change. He thought briefly of his failed attempt at contacting Etarin, but deep down he already knew what he needed to do. Tonight was definitely going to prove interesting.

Their dinner was breaking up, as the Earthborn made their excuses and headed for home. Andros took a deep breath, dreading what was going to happen next.

"Ashley?" he called, and she turned back to him and smiled. His heart skipped a beat as he remembered why he had been drawn to her in the first place. So sweet, so kind, so... young. _'Powers, I am such a bastard.'_

"What's up?"

"We need to talk."

"Okay. Oh, there's a new club that just opened up in town, we could go there and—"

"No—"

"Or there's that coffee place you like, if you want somewhere quieter. I mean... it's just been so long since we've been on a date."

"That's what I need to talk to you about," he said, his voice strangled. All of his planned speeches had gone quietly out the airlock. "I think we..."

"Yes?" she asked, looking up at him expectantly. So trusting.

For a long moment, he was tempted to ask her out again, to once again make up for all of the pain he had caused her. "Ashley," he said, very gently. "You mean a lot to me, and you always will."

"You mean a lot to me, too," she said, smiling and stepping in a little closer. She moved to put her arms around him, but he caught her hands and held them.

"And I'm sorry for all the heartache I caused you," he kissed her hands. "But I think it's time we both moved on."

He hated himself for the look on her face as she stumbled back from him in shock. Tears formed in her eyes, but did not fall as they stood there frozen in an awful tableau. Finally, Cassie called for Ashley to hurry up, and she took that opportunity to flee.

_'I am _such_ a bastard.'_

* * *

Ketana had seen him call Ashley aside. How could she blame him? Ashley was offering him everything that she couldn't. Warmth, companionship...

Innocence.

She felt strangely, unnaturally calm and detached from her body, as she stripped down before donning her armor. It was as if the ever-present rage had given her some sort of twisted clarity. So that night she walked calmly through the grove, firmly in step with her demons.


	17. Chapter Seventeen

A/N: Apologies for the late update. Next week's update might be a bit late as the chapter is yet to be completed and betaed. I just moved, so things have been mildly hectic. Thanks for reading, and reviews are appreciated!

--Mara

Chapter Seventeen: "Liar."

She was standing in the edge of a cliff when he found her, arms crossed, completely still. Ketana didn't move as he approached. As soon as her connection to Ashley had been severed she'd regained the near feral edge to everything she did. He knew that there had been times during the afternoon and evening that she'd stayed civil by sheer force of will alone. A thrill ran through him at the prospect of facing this Ketana in a sparring match. The worry that followed that thought was decidedly less strong than it probably should be, he realized, and he didn't care. Ever since she'd broken down the walls in his mind during their first match, the world that had been was coming more and more into his thoughts, though he'd been careful not to show too much around the others. It was a fine line he walked, somewhere between being the almost too perfect alien ally the Earthborn knew, Zhane's friend, Karone's brother, and a man who had spent three years fighting in the rebellion against this woman. It was getting harder to walk that line, as he slowly returned to the person he had become.

Andros twirled the bottle in his hands, knowing that it wasn't too late to set it aside and offer to spar. He needed a good spar, and after today he was certain that she would too. Just sparring wasn't going to get them anywhere, though, and as much as he hated to do this to her he needed to start her talking or she would never heal. He was glad that Zhane had convinced Karone to go to the movies: there probably wasn't going to be a way of hiding this one.

"Thinking of jumping?" he asked.

She didn't turn, didn't move. "Yeah, actually."

A disconcerting image rose in his mind, the memory of a ranger laughing deliriously at self-inflicted wounds, fighting the medics who were trying to heal him. "Trying to scare me away?"

"Maybe."

"Thought you might need a drink," he said, holding out a blue bottle. She turned at that.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" she asked, eyeing the bottle. The sun was just beginning to set.

"Are you blaming yourself for what happened?"

"Give me a lecture about how it isn't my fault and so help me I will chuck you over this cliff," she said, her carefree tone ringing hollow.

"No lectures. Just you, me, and this bottle of Silurian vodka."

"What, no 'light ale?'"

He chuckled at that, to hide the mild embarrassment at his actions over the last two years. "Powers, no. Another regrettable repercussion of the orbs."

She smiled at that, and he was pleasantly surprised.

He opened the bottle and held it out to her. "Shall we get roaring screaming drunk?"

She didn't reach for it, but she did take a step away from the edge. "Are your intentions pure, sir?"

"What?"

"How can you still be so bloody innocent?" she asked, lightly, not quite hiding her resentment.

"Pure dumb luck, willful ignorance, and the orbs," he said, sitting on a nearby boulder. He patted the rock next to him. "My intentions are pure."

"Shame," she said, further surprising him.

It was then that he started to realize what he was about to step into. Ketana was going to try to hurt him, whether purposely or to drive him away he wasn't sure. She'd been hiding it well enough, or maybe he hadn't been looking, but he'd seen this behavior before in other victims, even in himself. "There was no right answer to that, was there?"

The smile was back. "Probably not." She took one last look at the sunset, then turned and joined him. She took a sip from the bottle he handed her, nodded in approval, and drank deeply.

"Good stuff," she said, passing the bottle back.

"We, ah, liberated a shipment bound for Bastion about five months in. This is from that little expedition," he said, fighting away the memories that the taste brought.

"Good."

They sat there for a while, passing the bottle back and forth.

"So what is it that you want?" she asked, when it was about half gone.

"Sorry?" he asked, pretending to be a little more out of it than he was. He'd been careful not to actually drink too much.

"It was a rough day, and you know it. But instead of us blowing off steam sparring like we have been, we're passing a bottle back and forth. So what is it," she asked, holding the bottle up and swirling its contents, "that you want that you need me drunk to get?"

He really didn't have an answer to that, and covered by taking the bottle and drinking.

"These things usually boil down to one of three things," she said, closing some of the distance between them. "So what is it you want: sex, information, or a favor?"

"I don't want any of those things," he said casually, wondering how he was going to talk his way out of this or if he should just wait and see where it went.

"Liar," she said, leaning back and lacing her fingers behind her head.

"I don't want anything from you."

"Liar," she said again, kicking her feet up and resting them on the stone next to him. "Everyone wants something."

"Fine," he said, experimentally placing a hand on her shin. Her eyes flashed, but she didn't move. "I want to see you happy again."

"Liar," she repeated, pulling her feet away and leaning forward again.

"What is it you want me to say here, Ket?" he asked, taking the bait. "Yeah, I want information. I want know about your deep dark terrible past – because I care about you."

"Closer."

"Because somewhere deep down I have some stupid belief that maybe I can help you," he said, continuing to play along. There had to be a way to reach Ketana, to find the woman behind the mannerisms and the masks.

"We're getting there."

"Of course, deep down I really just want to fu..." he broke off, looking away.

Her smile was smug now. He'd lost this round of the game and they both knew it. "Can't say it, can you?" she asked, her voice was almost a caress.

"Did you know you're a mean drunk?" he shot back. He knew he had to say something and that was the first thing that came to him.

"Sorry," she said.

There was a flash of truth in that, and he pressed his advantage. "Liar."

She laughed, and it was almost real. "Got me there." She drank, paused, and turned to him. "All right, you've earned a real answer to one question. Choose wisely."

He considered this, watching her. Her eyes glittered with a strange mixture of amusement and pain. She was, on some level, enjoying this, and thinking that they were playing by her rules. "No," he said.

"And why not?" she asked, and if she was disappointed by his reversal it didn't show. "This isn't an offer you're going to get very often, or maybe not even at all, now. You've been good about not pushing me for things, but I know that there must be a thousand things that you're just dying to ask."

"Of course there are, and I am certain that there are things that you want to know as well. But..." He chose his next words carefully. "Anything you want to tell me has to be motivated by your desire to tell it. No tricks, no games, or things to be earned."

"You weren't such an idealist during the war, or you wouldn't have been so difficult to track down," she said, choosing a new form of attack.

"No. I wasn't. At that time I was trying to kill you."

"You succeeded, as I remember."

He couldn't help it: he flinched at that and look away.

"Damn it," she whispered, then, louder, "Sorry."

"It was war," he said, unconvincingly.

"Still is, last time I checked. I just can't seem to decide which side I belong to," she said, and when he was able to look at her again she was studying her gloved fingers very intently. Ketana habitually changed back to her old clothes at night – everything, except for the mask.

"Glad you're on this one."

"Really? Which one of our mutual friends would you like me to hurt next and do you want it to be intentional or not?" she asked.

"It wasn't—"

"There's still a cliff right there. You might not want to finish that sentence," she said, but there was no force behind her words.

"You won't hurt me," he said, wondering if they were approaching a breaking point.

"The medical logs say something different."

"That's just sparring."

"How can I make you understand this, Red? All I do is hurt or kill people, whether I mean to or not. And none of it – none of it matters anymore. I want to _hurt_ something. Someone. _All of the time._ It doesn't matter who I'm with or what we're doing, I want to kill things, I want to hurt people because that's the only time that _I_ feel anything anymore." she said, and the bottle slipped from her hands. She rose, pacing. "I don't care anymore. Another day, another person in the med bay because of me and _I don't care._ I don't feel anything." Her voice cracked and she fell silent. She tried to speak several times, and he tensed as he saw the mask begin to slip and crack.

"It's okay," he said quietly.

"Fuck you," was all she could manage. He ignored that: if she was resorting to cursing then he was getting somewhere.

"You do care, Ketana. That's why you're up here, screaming and pacing," he said, rising and taking a tentative step towards her. "Things happened to you. That isn't going to magically go away. And pushing it away is only going to make you feel worse."

The mask slipped back into place, and he cursed at himself. "Thanks. So much. Really, I enjoy sermons; I'm not getting enough of those from your sister. Can I go now?" she snapped.

"I'm not keeping you," he said, angry at losing the precious little ground he had gained. She glared at him for a second longer, then swept past him down the path. He didn't watch her go. Sinking back onto the rock he grabbed the vodka and took a long swig. He rubbed his eyes, hoping he hadn't made too terrible a mess of things.

_'Should have waited until we had talked to Etarin...'_ he thought. He sat there for a long time as the full moon rose, looking out over the valley, drinking and thinking. He heard the soft crunch of gravel, and dared to hope.

"Like I said, I'm good at hurting people," she said quietly, joining him once more. "I'm sorry."

"No problem," he said, handing back what was left of the vodka. "So the scar on your cheek," he asked abruptly, all plans and plots thrown to the wind. She'd answer him, or she wouldn't. "Where did it go?"

She didn't speak. Standing, she walked steadily to the cliff edge and looked over it again. For a moment he wondered if she was going to leave again.

"Never mind then," he said, leaning back. "New subject, your choice."

She didn't answer, but she did touch the right side of her neck, and then placed something into her pocket. He heard the soft whisper of cloth, and her gloves dropped to the ground beside her. The long coat followed soon after, and then he heard the sound of a zipper, and she began to slide her shirt off. Andros shifted uncomfortably, unsure of what he wanted to happen next.

* * *

She heard him shift, heard the catch in his breath. Her shirt slipped to the ground, and she heard a different sort of catch in his breath when he saw. 

Even in the moonlight, he would be able to see the scars that ran the length of her body.

She shivered in the night air, as warm as it was. Her entire body was tingling, both from their exchange and from the alcohol flowing through her system. He was right, and she knew it, but that didn't make any of this easier.

She could sense his eyes on her, hear him as he moved closer, feel the heat from his body as he stood behind her. Ketana turned, and tilted her head back in invitation. Hesitantly, he lifted his hand and traced his thumb across one particular scar across her neck.

Her tongue was thick, but she spoke anyway in an effort to hold herself together. "I don't heal anymore. Not properly, at any rate. I once finished a fight with six inches of steel in my spine – and yes, I know that that's a physical impossibility – but none of the scars heal on their own. I heal only enough to move on to the next fight. Alpha slipped me a disguise chip so Karone wouldn't freak," she said, the control that had allowed her to do this slipping slowly away at the touch of his hand on her neck.

"Ket," he whispered, and couldn't or wouldn't continue. They stood frozen for a few heartbeats until slowly, Andros wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. After a moment, she returned his embrace.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

Hello All,

I'm still alive. Life got strange. At any rate, apologies for the nearly two and a half (!) year delay. Much love to my wonderful (and quite patient) beta, Hagar.

-Mara

*****

Chapter Eighteen: "He deserves so much better."

She sat in the shower, hot water cascading over her, tracing the scars. She'd let him hold her, again, let herself think things that she had been certain she'd forgotten. His hand on her throat, tracing the edge of the scar he had made, the other resting gently against the small of her back.

Then, as he had pulled her closer, his hand had found the brand on her shoulder. It was the Zaroan glyph for "Possession." He had pulled away – ever so slightly – but it had been enough. She had turned and pulled out of his arms, walking away. She'd slapped him when he'd grabbed her arm, and he'd looked at her with those big brown eyes... and in that moment she wasn't sure whether she wanted to fuck the innocence from them or rip them out and be done with it all.

She clutched her knees a little closer to her chest, still glad that he had at least found the shoulder brand, and not the "whore" that had been carved across her hips... That was one story she prayed she would never have to tell him. The desire to fight hadn't been the only thing burned into her, and right now she wanted nothing more than to… Ketana threw her head back and bashed it into the tile, welcoming the pain and dizziness that held off the wave of need.

The memories of the games she'd been forced to play – "resisting" Dharin – somehow found their way through her spinning mind. She'd sworn to Vasa that she would never do to another what was done to her, and yet here she was, using the same mind games on Andros, drawing him and then slapping him away when she was tired and didn't want to play anymore. _'I should just leave,'_ she thought. _'Leave him to his sweet little Ashley.'_

She pulled herself to her feet and shut the water off. The disguise chip was still in her pocket, but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to put it back on again. She toweled off, and stood in front of the mirror, forcing herself to look at each scar and remember.

_'Powers, he deserves so much better than me.'_

*

At times he wondered if he truly was going mad. The once proud scion of a noble house kicked aside by demons as his own men watched on in shame. Zaroa's greatest mind lost to insanity, the man who overthrew an Empire drooling into his soup, babbling about his sweet Princess Astronema and holding animated and heated debates with bulkheads. Ecliptor, mighty warrior and patron of house Zaroa, had been driven completely insane by guilt at betraying his Empire, and by losing the girl he had come to love as a daughter.

He had, however, gained a small measure of respect by disemboweling two monsters that had been tormenting him and painting a very lovely recreation of the famous Inquirian temple murals on the walls of deck nine with their blood. That, and the scattered remains of a very unfortunate Quantron, had kept anyone from seriously considering making attempts on his life. Dharin found him to be an endless source of amusement. Ecliptor was often paraded in front of his son's guests, playing the fool to an increasingly impressive array of monsters.

Tonight he was dancing wildly for another party, seemingly oblivious to their taunts and suggestions. He considered adding a half-remembered nursery tune to his act, but decided against it. The demons were rather drunk, and already he'd had to "stumble" more times than he liked to avoid being killed by accident or on a demonic whim. He really did not want anyone to notice how adept the mad man was at staying out of trouble, and knowing thta Darkonda had arrived that afternoon he was starting to wonder whether or not his ruse would survive the night.

His house guards had done what they could to protect him, though their gazes fell a little lower to the ground each day, perhaps explaining why none of them were on hand currently. A few spoke of transferring their allegiance to the patron's son, and those few grew louder as faith in their once beloved leader crumbled. The hierarchy remained firm, however – they could not and would not swear their allegiance to a new patron until the previous one was dead – providing that an enterprising son had had no hand in the father's death.

When his son arrived he made himself scarce in one of the corners, close enough that he could still hear what was being discussed, but not so close as to draw undue attention. He listened intently without appearing to, while they discussed their battle plans, committing everything to memory. Eventually, the meeting drew to a close and he slipped quietly away. He felt strangely disconnected as he encoded all that he had learned and sent the transmission to Etarin's rebels – no one had bothered to revoke his access codes: he was, after all, still the House patron. _'My good deed for the day is done,'_ he thought sarcastically, shutting down the communication array he had cobbled together and hiding it again.

He was crossing the hangar deck, on his way back to his own quarters, when a mailed fist slammed into the side of his face. For a moment, he wondered if he had been found out, and was not nearly as upset about the thought as he supposed he should be. But no accusation came, only another blow. He was surprised, really. He'd been mostly left alone since his mural paintings. He was itching to do the same to these monsters, but when he opened his eyes he saw a sight that made his blood run cold.

Darkonda was watching intently from a platform above, no doubt to see how he would handle the situation.

With an inward sigh, Ecliptor rolled on to his back and looked up at his attackers. Time for that nursery rhyme after all. Throw in a few references to his own less than loving father, and the act should convince Darkonda. Or get him killed.

Either way.

_'This is penance,'_ he thought, as the blows fell.

He thought of vows broken, how he had betrayed his Empire in a hollow, foolish bid to help his people.

'_This is penance for my sins.'_

He heard Karone's screams when he had betrayed her, when he held her down on the operating table.

'_This is penance for my sins.'_

He felt Ketana's blood on his hands, innocent green eyes staring up at him, and he had been unable to tell her that he thought he was saving her.

'_This is penance for my sins.'_

He felt his rib crack.

*

TJ let the others go on ahead, pretending that he had left something behind. Cassie looked as if she had wanted to follow him, but when she'd seen the expression on Ashley's face she'd abandoned him. He waited until Karone and Zhane left to go catch a late movie, until Andros left the ship to do... whatever it was that Andros did late at night. Ketana had long since disappeared, but he still waited for a long time to make sure the ship was quiet.

He had never once questioned his decision to leave the bus and follow a girl whose friend was in danger. That day he had assumed responsibilities far beyond what a normal teen should have to deal with, but he had never once thought to say, "That's enough, thanks, I'm finished," as he knew some of the previous rangers had. It was his duty, and he was proud of what they had done, and of the people he had served beside.

"Alpha," he said, joining the robot on the bridge. "I need to talk to Dimitria."

He hoped he would still be proud of them the next day.

*

Darkonda watched with growing approval as Dharin added to his army of supporters, intimidating, charming, and deceiving each monster or demon as needed. Even those that left grumbling about having to serve a mortal were still fully intending to do exactly as Dharin requested – clever boy always asked, never ordered. A few offered to solve the problem of his inheritance, but he deftly deflected all of them.

"I don't understand why you don't just kill him and be done with it," Darkonda said when they were alone, lazily swirling his glass of wine. He had his own scores to settle with the old fox, and was more than half convinced that Ecliptor's sudden madness was an act. Still, his time was limited, and as the little test he had devised for his one-time ally had proved inconclusive, he was going to have to let the matter rest in favor of some more pressing engagements.

Dharin shrugged. "I suppose I could give you some great long flowery speech about ties of blood or the fact that I find him amusing – which I do – but the fact remains that the Elite hierarchy still scare the hell out of me. If they find out I killed him, or had anything even remotely to do with his death, then they'll turn on me and go running to the loving arms of Etarin and his rebels. My dear sweet father has let slip just enough about me that most of them would just as soon toss me out the nearest airlock."

Darkonda nodded at that, examining a perfectly manicured nail. The chains and horn routine had grown rather boring, and with the restraints lifted from his own powers he was again free to change his shape at will. Today he was an Aldorian aristocrat. Tomorrow he was considering being a flesh-eating Reaver. "I don't need to remind you that our benevolent leaders won't much like that answer."

"I know," Dharin said, and despite his casual tone Darkonda knew that he was worried about delivering on his promise. "But it still isn't to my advantage to move against my father right now. Trust me. I can handle Earth without the help of the Elite, though I will gain command of them soon."

"I've no doubt that you can, and will," Darkonda said simply, taking a moment to study his companion. When it had first been decided that the Council was going to honor their promise to hand Ketana over to this human, Darkonda had been furious. He'd wanted the impressionable, young, virgin girl for himself – especially after her rather unexpected recovery when Ecliptor had executed her. Yet even he had to admire Dharin's success at destroying Ketana, in spite, even, of the Phoenix's meddlesome interference. He'd grown quite fond of Dharin in the time since, and had already made some arrangements for when the boy inevitably died. It had been far too long since his last apprentice. "You've been making inquiries about the Earthborn girl – tired of Ketana so soon?"

A slow smile spread over the boy's lips. "Not in the least. But there is something to be said for the untouched. Speaking of, they gave you the bastard to play with, did they not?" Dharin's voice betrayed little of the burning hatred that Darkonda knew he felt for Andros.

"They did." Darkonda almost sighed. Losing his control over Andros had been a great disappointment, to say the least, and the loss of his to date favorite pet was not a happy memory. Darkonda had had him for a few precious months before his experiment had unexpectedly and quite spectacularly failed. While Darkonda had been away on business Andros had very nearly destroyed the entire demon base on Ord Mantrell, and had been executed and tossed into a mass grave before Darkonda had returned. Darkonda was dying to find out how Andros had survived that, and to this day he was angry that the rebels had found Andros's body first. It irritated him beyond words that even his extensive network of contacts could not discover how Andros had survived, let alone who the boy's father really was. Perhaps now that he was unrestricted again, he'd have more luck. Somehow he knew he was missing something. The residual effects of the memory spells had a tendency of creating surprises.

"I assume you still have some hooks in him, though?" Dharin asked, pulling him from fond memories.

"A few, yes," he said, hoping that they hadn't been discovered and removed. He hadn't thought to test them recently. If not, there were other, more interesting ways – it had been too long since his last challenge.

"Oh, good." Nothing more was said, nothing needed to be said. Dharin knew better than to dictate to the Chaos Demon.

*

Mrs. Hammond held her daughter as she cried, wondering when exactly it had been that she had become a stranger. Her daughter was hurting, and had been for quite some time, but she could barely get her to say three words about it. She'd finally learned that that nice, but odd foreign exchange student she'd been dating had broken up with her, but Ashley refused to tell her anything more. There were vague references to another girl, but every time Ashley started to talk about what had happened, she would suddenly fall silent and refuse to say anything more. Finally, she stopped prying and just let her daughter cry, supplying her with a steady stream of chocolate and tissues, and eventually getting her to see that maybe, just maybe it wasn't the end of the world. That maybe the sun would still come out tomorrow, that there were other fish in the sea – she hated the clichés even as they fell from her lips, but they seemed to help. That was all that mattered right now.

Long after Ashley had gone to bed, though, her mother was still troubled. Mostly, she had chalked up her daughter's strange behavior up to the fact that she was, after all, a teenager. But over the past few months Ashley had become increasingly erratic, disappearing at random times, spending more and more time away during the evenings. Ashley always had an excuse of some sort, and she'd never caught her daughter in a lie – she could barely even believe she was thinking that Ashley could or would lie to her. But all of this felt as if there were something more than a broken heart happening in her daughter's life.

*

Andros sat on the bed with his back against the wall, cheek stinging, open bottle in his hand. _'Shouldn't still hurt,'_ he thought, taking a drink. He could sense her, tightly shielded, but unable to hide. The more time they spent together, the harder it became to shut each other out completely.

He could still feel her body pressed against his, her skin under his fingers. Her scent still clung to his clothes, torturing him. And the scars...

He drank deeply, praying for oblivion.

In the next room, he could sense her sitting on her bed, just on the other side of the wall. When they were teens, he had thought it romantic, almost as if they were sleeping in the same bed. He felt it as she hesitated, then rose, slipping out of her room, leaving the ship.

_'Run, Princess. Run from the bastard who will never be good enough for you.'_


	19. Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen: "Do you know who you are?"

_His head was pounding. He opened his eyes, wincing at the light. Two concerned medics leaned over him._

_"Do you know who you are?"_

_Memories slipped through his fingers. His tongue was too thick to even consider telling them that he didn't know. He would have shook his head, but the room was spinning enough as it was._

_"Stand aside." A third voice. Commanding. Familiar, almost, but he couldn't quite place where he had heard it before. Another face leaned over him, and he struggled to focus on it. Brown and blonde striped hair, concerned brown eyes, a face that was almost familiar._

_"My son. Are you all right?"_

_Andros struggled to pull himself up. "F-father?"_

_His father had hugged him, then. He dreamed of this day for years, and yet... it did not feel quite right. He pushed away his doubts, soul singing to finally meet the father he had never known._

_Andros recovered, quickly, though his memory remained frustratingly unreliable. All he knew, then, was that his father – his father! – was here now. But after the first day, Andros barely saw the man who had called himself his father. It seemed that he was always unreachable, or away, and on the few occasions that Andros did see him, he was distant, cold even. When he was declared fit again, he began leading missions for his father, desperate to win some sort of attention. It was only after a particularly brutal fight that he received his first nod of acknowledgement. From there, he became more and more daring, earning a few words of praise – and the more vicious he became, the more praise, the more attention he received. Soon, he was almost unstoppable, the protests of his conscience weak defense against a father's love. Then came the tests, suffering under incredible pain, carrying out acts of violence and terror – all to prove his loyalty and love._

_All of which he had done. _

_Willingly. _

_The discovery of his "father's" true nature had been a mistake, he thought, though when dealing with a Chaos demon one could never be sure if such discoveries were accidental or intentional in order to cause even further pain. He looked, for the first time, at the monster that he had become: Darkonda's son. Half-demon. Carrying on a legacy of pain and destruction. Every fear, every doubt that had plagued him since he had been old enough to understand the circumstances surrounding his birth came crashing back. He was wrong. Unnatural. A threat to everything good and pure. For the first time, he found that he was glad that Ketana was dead, so that she would never know, never see what he had become._

_Mad with grief, he had turned on the demon base, destroying as many as he could before earning his execution at the hands of a masked woman._

Andros woke with a start, plagued by memories, unsuccessfully trying to make himself calm down, and trying to ignore his raging hangover. He knew, now, that Darkonda had been manipulating his mind, making him more susceptible to suggestion, dependent on the adrenalin rush from fighting, dependent on the approval of the "father" he'd searched for his entire life. He knew, also, that the Chaos demon was incapable of siring children, and that Darkonda could not be his father. It had all been a cruel joke.

A cruel, effective joke. The things he had done… Sianna had assured him that Darkonda had had a heavy hand in influencing his mind, but at the end of it all, Andros was still left with the knowledge of what he was capable of doing of his own free will.

Since that time, the darker side of his nature had lurked on the edges of his consciousness, driving him out, driving him onto the field at Kerova where Ketana had crumpled and died by his hand, driving him out at night, away from the innocent and trusting people who called him friend. It was there now, when he sparred with Ketana, bruising and bloodying her instead of offering a gentle, loving touch to save her from her own demons.

She'd accused him of wanting to go back to the way things were, but that was a lie. He didn't want the old Ketana back. He wanted the warrior who had stood by his side that day on the beach, who kissed him with bruising intensity. When he had held her that night, he'd wanted to trace every scar, hear about the battles that she had earned them in. He'd wanted to take her, hard against the rocks, make her forget that she had ever been touched by anyone else.

And that, to his mind, made him more of a monster than Dharin.

_'Run, Princess. Run from the demon who has no right to be with you.'_

_"Make the choice, Andros."_ Suddenly he could hear Sianna's words, as clear in his mind as the day she had said them four years earlier. _"Choose this life. Don't continue to let Darkonda win."_

"Yeah, because it can be that easy," he whispered.

*

Ketana woke from a nightmare gasping, hands clasped over her belly in well-remembered pain. She lay in the dark panting, trying to regain some semblance of composure. Her entire body ached: in the previous night's events she'd neglected to go see Alpha for the daily dose of chemicals that kept her body from showing the extent of wear and tear it had been subject to. Her joints ached, and as she tried to stretch in preparation of quitting her bed and going to the med bay scar tissue pulled painfully across her back. She was wondering if she could swallow her pride long enough to call Alpha to her room for help when the door chimed and Karone let herself in without waiting for permission. Ketana was extremely grateful that habit had led her to restore her camouflage chip after her exercise in self-torture.

"Good morning," Karone said cheerily, and if she noticed how slowly her friend was moving she did not comment on it. "I saw Alpha in the hall, he told me to give you this."

Ketana took the cup gratefully, trusting in Alpha's confidence that Karone did not know the truth of its contents.

"I thought we could all go to the beach today, try to restore the team a little," Karone said, as Ketana drank gratefully.

"Sounds like fun. Enjoy yourselves," Ketana said, looking forward to some peace and quiet.

"Oh, no you don't," Karone said. "You're coming too."

"I really don't think—"

"We're here for you, Ketana. All of us. But you have to let us help you," Karone said, and Ketana knew that she truly believed the words.

Ketana sighed. "All right."

"Yay! I brought a bathing suit for you. We're leaving in a little bit."

Inwardly, Ketana swore as Karone nearly skipped out of the room, and her foul mood did not improve as she looked at the green and white striped bikini and flowing wrap Karone had brought for her. She compromised by pulling a pair of cargo pants and a tank top from the stack Karone had already brought her.

Karone was trying, in the best way she knew how, but somehow this knowledge did little to soother Ketana's anger. She hadn't realized how much Ashley had been draining from her, and the mental restraints she'd put in place did little to stem the wave of self-loathing and anger. She needed a good fight, and a good—

"Are you coming?" Karone's voice called from the corridor.

She took a deep breath, promising herself that she wasn't going to kill one of her oldest friends just because it would make her feel better. "Coming!"

*

The door chimed, and his head screamed in protest. For a moment he hoped and feared that it might be Ketana.

His door chimed again, and he moaned in pain. "Go away."

"Good morning to you too, sunshine," Zhane said, his usual chipper self as he stepped into Andros's quarters.

Andros wondered if Zhane knew how much he appreciated having at least one constant in his life, even as he felt the false smile curving on his lips. _'Monster...'_ The mask of civility slipped so easily into place. "You are remarkably chipper this morning."

Zhane grinned. "I had a good night last night."

"Really," Andros said, swinging his feet over the edge of his bed and holding a pillow threateningly in one hand, hoping Zhane wouldn't see the way he swayed. The hangover was bad; he hadn't realized quite how out of practice he was. He wondered if it would even occur to Zhane that he might have been drinking.

Zhane stepped back a little. "I had good, clean, innocent fun last night during which I was a perfect gentleman with your sister."

"Good answer."

"Speaking of, Karone thinks that we should take the day off from training and just relax."

"Fine. Have fun," he said, with a twinge of guilt. His constant resolutions to stop pushing his friends away danced through his mind, coupled with a cold twist of fear that he might some day reveal himself for what he was. _'Get a grip, already. Don't let Darkonda win this round,'_ he told himself, firmly.

"She, ah, sort of wanted the whole team together, so we could kinda... you know, start talking to each other again."

_'Yeah, because Ketana, Ashley, and Carlos all __**really**__ want to talk to me right now.'_ Andros sighed, "I suppose that's for the best. Give me a sec," he said, grabbing some clean, appropriate Earth clothes and going to bathroom to splash some water on his face. The industrial strength dose of painkiller helped him feel almost human again.

"Incidentally," Zhane said, when Andros rejoined him, "when do we get to have a conversation where one of us doesn't say 'Well, you look like hell'?"

"I have a finger for you, can you guess which one?"

"You know, I think I liked you better when you were sixteen again and all earnest and awkward. I miss that Andros."

Andros stopped. "You know what? I think I might too."

Zhane swallowed. He hadn't expected his teasing to have this effect. Andros looked as if he were about to fall apart. "Are you—"

"Just tired. Didn't sleep well," Andros said shortly, suddenly moving again, seemingly all right. "I believe there was a promise of coffee?"

Zhane watched him go for a moment, then caught up with him, grabbing his arm to stop him. "No. It doesn't end like this."

"What?"

"I'm your best friend. We used to talk, remember that? Friends forever? And now we can't actually have a conversation unless we spend most of it joking," he said. _'And I am sick to death of playing the fool. Not when you're hurting and laughter isn't helping.'_

"I—" Andros stopped abruptly as they heard footsteps in the hall behind them, and Ketana came around the corner, already dressed for the day's activities per Karone's wishes. Zhane watched as Andros's face became a mask again.

"Coming to breakfast, boys?" she asked, an unmistakable frostiness in her voice. Ketana barely broke her stride as she passed them. So that was it.

"What happened between the two of you?" Zhane asked, as soon as she was gone. "What's going on?"

Andros looked at him helplessly, and shook his head. For a moment Andros looked so lost that Zhane wanted nothing more than to reach out to him – and was horrified to realize that somewhere along the way their relationship had disintegrated to a point where he wasn't comfortable doing that. "Come on," Zhane said softly. "They're waiting for us."

*

It wasn't fair. The day dawned bright, clear, and beautiful, and while she didn't exactly feel any better, the world hadn't ended overnight. Ashley was still trying to understand everything that had happened yesterday. It used to be that learning about a new ranger talent made her excited.

This one had her terrified.

But after she had checked to make sure that all of the shields Ketana had taught her about were still in place, all thoughts of ranger talents and responsibilities flying out of her mind. She'd thought that she had cried herself out last night, but apparently that wasn't the case. Her mind felt strangely disconnected, as if she were standing outside of her body, watching someone else cry. In the last five weeks she'd lost almost everything that was important to her: first they'd very nearly lost the fight for Earth, then she'd slowly started losing control over her emotions, her friends had all started withdrawing or changing outright, then Andros...

Then the boyfriend she thought had loved her had just... dumped her. Without warning, without any signs – well, from the beginning he had snuck away a lot; and he'd never actually said that he loved her; and only once had he ever been the one to ask her out, she'd always had to make the first move – but he had just dumped her.

"Sweetie? Cassie's here to see you," Ashley's mother called from the door.

Ashley groaned noncommittally in response.

"I'll just send her up, then."

Cassie knocked on the door, then came in without waiting for a response. She was holding a paper bag. "Is that what I think it is?" Ashley asked.

"Yep. Chocolate croissants, fresh from my Mom's oven. Thought you might need them."

"Thanks," Ashley said, gratefully accepting a hot, gooey pastry.

"How are you feeling this morning?" Cassie asked, once they had finished their breakfast.

"I don't know," Ashley said. They sat in silence for a long moment, and she could see Cassie trying to come up with something appropriate to say. There was no right thing, but that didn't mean that Cassie wasn't going to try. And somehow, that made the world almost okay again.

"Look—" she started to say, but stopped when her communicator went off. "Cassie here."

"Hi, Cassie, it's Karone. We were thinking about canceling practice today and hanging out for a bit. You know, kind of try to rebuild the team. Are you interested?"

"I, uh, I don't know..."

"Please? I know everyone's been really on edge lately, and I thought it would be a good way for everyone to start over again."

"Is Andros there?" Ashley asked.

There was the slightest hesitation. "Yes."

"Then we're in."


	20. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty: "So what are you going to do about it?"

Karone had thought it best for them all to play some games to start out with, something physical to keep talk to a minimum. Ketana had begged out of playing "Frisbee golf" on the beach, sitting on the sidelines with the excuse that she wanted to watch and learn how to play – an excuse than none of them really bought – but her distance helped TJ breathe a little easier. He kept a close eye on Andros during the match, trying to reconcile his knowledge of his friend with the information he had learned the night before.

"Any reason why you're glaring holes in Andros's back?" Ketana asked, as he joined her by the cooler. "Not to mention holding your breath every time I get within two feet of any of your teammates?"

"Can you give me one good reason why I shouldn't?" he asked, grabbing a water bottle.

"For me? No. My sins are many and well documented, as I'm guessing you found out some time last night. His are not. So what gives?"

TJ looked at her for a long moment, wondering if he should just let the subject drop. But he couldn't. Not now. "He killed you."

"In a fair fight on a field of battle. Incidentally, if he hadn't, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation. Earth was coming up fast on my list, and at that point I was so far gone that only death allowed Zordon and the Phoenix to reach me," she said, outwardly calm.

"So you're trying to tell me that him killing you saved the universe," TJ asked, not quite able to believe what he was hearing. Surely she couldn't be so casual about this?

"A bit, yeah."

"And you're okay with that?"

"Yes."

"You're insane," he said, staring at her.

"That's the common theory," she said, still maddeningly relaxed. "Now, shortlist: massacre at Vergon-6 – yes, that was me, but the Quintari are a demon tribe, so don't get too upset about that one. I attacked Aquitar, didn't manage to conquer it in time. Ceros, Mirinoi, Eltare, Omicron, and Haven all fell to me at one time or another. The counter rebellion on Eltare was extremely successful, mostly because I wasn't there – and no, I'm not proud of that. There's blood on my hands. Two that I was responsible for, directly …" For a split second her eyes flashed to Andros, then she recovered. "People died during the occupations," finally, a bit of emotion showed on her face, and he was fairly certain it was regret, "including one of the Haven Rangers."

TJ nodded. He'd already known as much, and hearing her say it didn't really change his opinion of her. "And Karone spent the better part of the past year trying to kill us, personally, and you managed to take down the entire team. That's not – exactly – what bothers me."

"Really. Then what does?"

"We're rangers. We're... well, we're the good guys. But both you and Andros have blood on your hands."

"_That's_ your hang-up? Look, kid—"

Something snapped in the back of his mind. His resentment at the subtle, and he hoped unintentional condescension in the way the alien rangers treated him and his Earthborn friends, the constant vague allusions to important stories that weren't always explained, the secrets and outright lies in a constantly shifting world that he and his friends were supposed to accept without question like good little children came to a head.

"Yeah, we're kids. And I should be worried about baseball season, or Prom, or graduation, or next week's homework, shouldn't I? Instead I made a choice – _we_ made a choice, and we chose this life.

"But I know that I'm not going to just step back and let you guys take care of things. I'm not going to just trust you when you've held back critical information that put me and my team in danger, and trust you with the safety of my planet when two of you have worked for our enemies – even if you were forced to – and two of you have blood on your hands," he paused, and saw Andros laughing with the others. He felt his fists clench, as everything he had ever thought about his former Red ranger was poisoned. "I'm done playing. I'm not going to keep pretending that calculus is tough now that I know how to plot a hyper-rush jump, or that it matters if we beat Stone Canyon at baseball. I should've said something sooner. I get that things are different now, I get it that you've seen some awful stuff. Fine. But we are trusting you with our lives. We're trusting you with our _families'_ lives."

Ketana stared at him for a long moment, something playing behind her eyes that he couldn't quite put a name to.

"Hey! TJ, are you playing, or what?" Carlos called.

"Just a second!" TJ called, and turned back to Ketana. The tiniest bit of amusement – and was that actually respect? – showed in her eyes.

"So what are you going to do about it?" she asked.

"What?"

"You were a team leader for a while, weren't you?" she asked.

"Yeah. Hand picked by one of the original rangers."

"Must be hard sitting back and taking orders."

"No," he said, with the tiniest bit of hesitation.

"Hey, what's up?" Karone asked, coming over to join them. The others were close behind, trying hard not to look too interested in their conversation.

"Just talking a little shop," Ketana said. "Nothing major."

"We're taking the day off, remember?" Karone said, with a sweet, winning smile. It set TJ's teeth on edge.

"Taking the day off? Taking the day _off_? There's a brand new big bad evil out there and your idea is that we should sit around playing games all day?" TJ snapped. "Who put you in charge, anyway?"

"I—"

"Relax, kid," Ketana drawled, lounging back on her beach towel. "She's one of the good guys, remember?"

"What d'you—"

"They implanted a chip, messed with her memories. She was forced," Ketana said lightly, and TJ didn't really want to carry that implication that only "she" was forced too far. "And hey, no blood on her hands, so by your definition..."

That stopped him cold. TJ glared at her, his hand flexing in and out of fists. He couldn't believe the answer that his mind was coming to, especially since he was still struggling to come to grips with the confirmation that he had just had from Ketana.

Andros had killed a living being.

...but he had also stayed alive – and won – fights that TJ knew he could barely begin to imagine.

"What are you two talking about?" Cassie asked.

"Nothing," TJ said. "Forget about it."

"Come on now, there are lives hanging in the balance," Ketana said. "Are you going to start lying to your team, too?"

"Ketana..." Andros said, a distinct note of warning in his voice.

"Maybe we should go back to the game," Zhane said quietly.

"No. Tell me something, Andros. 'Second battle for Kerova' – did you know she wasn't a monster?" TJ said suddenly. He had to know.

"How did you—"

The sudden flash of shock and regret in his eyes had been proof enough, but for this one, TJ had to hear him say it. "Did you know?"

Andros hesitated for a split second, making sure that he caught TJ's eyes. "Yes. I knew. And in that moment I did not care."

"Why not?"

"I found her on the battlefield just as my commanding officer was sliding off of her sword. As soon as the fight began it was pretty obvious that only one of us would be walking away from it," Andros said evenly. His eyes slid to Ketana's.

She laughed outright, but wouldn't look at him. "Relax, Red, you can drop the strong stoic act."

"You—you _killed_ her?" Ashley sputtered.

"Yes," Andros said simply. Karone had gone pale. Zhane put his arm around her, his own expression unreadable. The others were alternately staring at Andros and Ketana in varying states of shock.

"So, kid, you've got an admission of guilt and an explanation from the source. I'll ask you one more time: What are you going to do about it?"

TJ glared at her again, but it was more annoyance than anger. He turned to Andros and said, "There is no part of me that is happy about this. About either of you. But you were our Red. I don't know if that actually means anything anymore, but you were our leader. You took over when," there was a slight hitch in his voice, "when I failed. And if you're willing to do what it takes to protect your team – our team, and our planet, then I want you to lead us. More than that, I want you to train us so we don't spend the rest of this war feeling useless and wondering what the hell is going on."

"I agree," Karone said, in a tiny voice, and everyone turned to look at her. She looked as if she wanted to melt into the ground.

"I, uh, I know what you were trying to do, Karone," TJ said awkwardly. "But if—"

"No. No, it's all right. You're right. We can't go back to the way things used to be," she said, taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders. "We've a war to fight. And I'm... I don't think I'm the right person to lead you."

"We've a war to win," Zhane said quietly. "I trust you, Andros. No matter what you've done."

The remaining three nodded mutely in agreement.

"Come to think of it, you were promoted to Lieutenant Commander after Agincourt, weren't you, Red? Makes you leader by default, anyway," Ketana said.

All eyes turned to him. _'Tell them. Tell them what you are.' _ Andros looked at her for a moment, almost pleading. "So you don't—"

"Object? No. You're the only person to have ever defeated me in single combat, remember?" she said aloud, tone bordering on the sarcastic. "Plus you have that whole celestial hero thing going for you, so they'll follow you to the ends of the 'verse."

The muscles in his jaw clenched, but Andros didn't respond to her – he wasn't, exactly, angry with her. Instead, he said, "All right, then. Gather your gear, we'll head back to the ship in a moment. Ketana, walk with me. I need to speak with you."

The others took one look at Andros's face, and beat a hasty retreat.

"What the hell was that about?" Andros snapped, after they had found a secluded place farther down the beach.

"Figured it would be better to let all that come out, rather than let Blue sit and think about it too much," she said, not quite meeting his eyes.

"He has a name."

"Yes, he does. And you and I know damn well the power of a name, Red," she said. For a brief moment he was seized with a strong desire to wipe the self-satisfied smile from her face, and quickly buried the urge. _'Monster,'_ Darkonda's voice taunted him.

"So," he said, fighting hard to keep his tone even, "Is there anything else that you were planning to reveal to my teammates today?"

She faltered, ever so slightly. The more time he spent with her, the more he was able to see the faults and cracks in her mask of competent indifference. "Ashamed?"

"No," he said, through clenched teeth. _'Make the choice, Andros.'_

"Good. Like I said, you're their celestial hero. Don't worry about it," she said, sauntering past him.

He grabbed her arm. "What are you going to do, slap me?" he asked, when she glared at him. She paused at that, and he used that opportunity to secure his hold on her. "Congratulations, you got what you wanted. Now tell me: Am I going to be able to count on you?"

"Give me a fight, Red, and I'll hold up my end," she said, jaw set in anger.

"Not what I meant, Princess," he said. "Either you choose to be on this team – really be here, with us – or I will turn you over to Alpha for protective custody."

"What?"

"Zordon said he wanted you here, fine. He didn't say in what capacity. And if you are not going to be a full member of this team, then I will not have you by my side."

"Did I really hurt your pride that much last night?"

"This has nothing to do with the two of us. As I recall, you're pretty good at separating your private and professional lives," he said, sounding a lot bitterer than he had intended. He recovered, "Either be here, with us, or not at all. I won't accept anything else."

She freed her hands from his grip, but instead of attacking him, she removed the camouflage chip and thrust her right wrist into his face. There was a faint, unremarkable, and highly significant scar over where her morpher should have been. "Not a ranger any more, Red. They took it a week in. I'm just a crazy whore who fights damn well for whichever side she happens to be on. I told you before: use me or let me go to someone who will."

He was not particularly surprised by her revelation. He'd guessed as much on the first day, when he'd found her cradling the box in the storage locker. "You took oaths, Ketana. We all did. Those mean more than a piece of technology," he said. "Work out your demons with us or do it under house arrest. Your choice, Princess." He was keenly aware of the rest of the team watching them from an almost respectable distance. He also knew he was about to lose her. "How long are you going to keep letting him win?" he whispered, trying very hard to ignore how close they were.

She glared at him, and he wondered if he had pushed too hard. This hadn't exactly been the way he was planning to do this.

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted."

"I really, really want to punch you right now," she said.

"Believe me, Princess, the feeling is mutual. Why don't you?" he asked, wishing that she would.

She stepped in close, her lips brushing his ear. "We're in a public place. If you think that Dharin isn't monitoring every word that we say, you're more of a fool than your sister," she whispered. He swallowed, hard, as she walked away with a mocking little laugh. They looked at him expectantly, trying valiantly not to stare at Ketana's now exposed scars. She let them stare for a long moment, then popped the chip back into place.

Responsibility crashed in around him, and he firmly reigned in his imagination before starting towards them.

_'Monster…'_


	21. Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty-One: All the more reason…

Andros joined the rest of them as they started to pack up, hoping that no one else on the beach had noticed their exchange. Ketana was entirely too cheerful, finding every opportunity to surreptitiously brush up close to him. He had escaped, for the moment, wanting nothing more than to get them all safely back to the Vale, hating that circumstances forbid them from simply teleporting away from the increasingly crowded beach.

"Hey," Carlos said, picking up a pile of towels and bringing it over to where Andros was loading things into Cassie's car. They were alone, for the moment.

"Hey," was all that Andros could think of to say in return. _Well, this is awkward._

"So you told her."

It took Andros a minute to figure out which "her" Carlos was referring to, before he was struck by another wave of self-recrimination over his conversation with Ashley the night before. "Yes."

"She didn't take it well."

"Not so much," Andros said. Carlos didn't say anything. The equipment was soon packed away with more care than was necessary, and Andros finally had to face him. "If you could get on to the part where you tell me what a horrible person I am, I am more than willing to listen."

"Yeah, because I'm going to gloat because now that you've broken up with her Ashley's going to come running to me. I'm not stupid, Andros."

"I—I'm sorry," was all that he could come up with.

"I don't envy you. The fight you'll have trying to keep Ketana under control, trying to keep us together as a team – I wouldn't want that. And I don't really care about the things that you've done to stay alive. I just wanted to let you know that I'm not going to hold some sort of stupid grudge over all of this, okay? So stop beating yourself up. You messed up. Now we move on." Carlos said, walking away.

*

"Desiree!"

Ashley's mother continued down the street, looking at, but barely registering the booths of the neighborhood Farmer's Market. She had a list, somewhere, of the things she had been intending to pick up, but somehow that didn't seem too important at present. Ashley and Cassie had bolted out of the house together with a mumbled explanation of some event going on at the park.

But there wasn't anything going on at the park today.

Maybe she had heard wrong. Maybe they had said that they were just meeting friends. But she was sure that Cassie had said "Fall Festival," and…

"Desiree! Goodness, woman, come back to Earth!"

Molly. Cassie's mother, and fast becoming a close friend since their daughter's lives had become so entwined in the last – what was it? – a little over a year since Ashley had suddenly brought home a new friend, as if she had known the girl since childhood. Shortly after Cassie's family had followed, and now it seemed as if they were all inseparable. "Oh, hello. Sorry, my mind is a million miles away."

"I noticed," Molly said. "Anything the matter?"

"Uh, no, not really."

Molly looked at her expectantly.

"I'm just a little worried about Ashley. I guess that boy she was seeing broke up with her."

"Ah, yes, Cassie did say something about that. She was planning to take her to the beach today, to try to get her mind off of it."

Desiree stopped. "The beach?"

"Yes, that is where the young people of this country tend to go… What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm sure it's nothing. It's just that, well, they told me that they were going to the park."

"Hmm. Their plans must have changed."

"But Cassie said that they were going to a festival of some sort. There's nothing happening at the park today."

"Maybe she had the day wrong. Desiree, our girls are good girls. At least mine is," Molly joked, but the joke fell flat. "Is there some reason why you're so sure that something is wrong?"

"Cassie's away from the house a lot, isn't she?"

"Well, yes. She has all these interests and clubs that she belongs to, then of course she is often out with her friends."

"Have you ever checked to see if that's true?"

"Are you trying to tell me that my daughter is lying to me?"

"No! No, of course not, I would never believe that of Cassie. And I don't want to believe it of Ashley. But she's been behaving so strangely lately…"

"She's a teenager," Molly laughed. "But I can tell this is bothering you. I will ask Cassie if she knows anything, if that will make you feel better."

"Thank you. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

They continued walking, talking, until a booth caught their eyes.

"Citizens Against the Power Rangers? Are they mad?" Molly asked.

"Mad? Sure I'm mad," the woman behind the table said. "The Power Rangers are a menace. They're out there, almost every week killing those poor, innocent aliens, and causing millions of dollars in property damage. It's a wonder no one has ever been killed in those pointless attacks. If the rangers weren't provoking them, I'm sure those aliens would just leave us alone."

"Yeah, right," Molly snorted.

"At least take some fliers with you!" The woman said, slapping some into Desiree's hand.

"Some people, I swear. It's like they don't even want to be saved," Molly muttered. Desiree nodded, absently putting the fliers in her purse.

She was still troubled when she got back to her house, and after a moment's hesitation she got in her car and headed to the beach.

*

Andros was halfway back to the group when the tell-tale shimmers of teleportation appeared between them. They were all morphed with a thought – trusting Alpha's new technology to keep their identities masked—

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of green and white, and belatedly realizing that Ketana was unarmed, unarmored, and unable to morph. "Ketana, go back to the Vale!" he ordered, before turning his attention back to his team. The monsters they faced now were more powerful than any they had seen before, and they kept on coming. The battle escalated quickly, and Andros shoved any doubts he had about his untried team to the back of his mind. There was no room for doubt, now.

*

Desiree Hammond parked next to Cassie's familiar pink Volkswagen, noting it as proof that her daughter was, in fact, not where she had told her that she would be. She froze when she heard the monster sirens, swearing quietly. The nearest shelter was across the parking lot, she automatically turned to check if the way was clear.

A girl, her daughter's age, maybe older, ran past, chased by a group of monsters. She didn't look frightened, didn't even scream. Instead, as they reached the firm ground of the parking lot she turned and rushed them, laughing. Within minutes the monsters lay dead, and the girl was running again, her bare feet barely making a sound on the pavement. She threw her head back in an inhuman cry that seemed to tear itself out of her throat, as if the voice that emerged didn't belong to her. It sounded like the hunting cry of some bird of prey. The sound drew more of the monsters to her, and she met them with a smile that made Desiree's blood run cold.

*

Having drawn away as many as she could, Ketana turned and headed back to the beach, blood singing with exhilaration. It had been a long few weeks. Her sporadic sparring with Andros hadn't been near enough to sate her, especially now that Ashley was no longer channeling her excess energy. As she ran, she watched the other Rangers fighting with growing approval. Andros was leading them well, using each to their own particular strength.

Teleportation shimmers formed to her right, and she turned to face the new threat.

And found herself staring into Dharin's light green eyes.

*

Andros saw her tense, and didn't need any further confirmation as to who the hooded figure before her was. "Alpha, get Ketana out of here, _now_!"

He hesitated, long enough to see that she was safely away. He didn't have time to be angry, didn't have time to go after Dharin – as much he wanted to.

Even before the last of the monsters had been defeated Andros saw Angel Grove's news trucks gathering in the parking lot, and he swore softly. He swore louder when he saw Ashley's mother sitting in shock next to Cassie's car.

"Alpha, teleport us to the nearest safe house and doctor the CCTV footage if they have any," he ordered. "Karone, when we get there I need you to cast a little confusion around, so no one realizes that we weren't there the entire time. Say nothing – we'll debrief later tonight."

Tired as they were from the fight, it wasn't hard to feign shock and relief as they emerged from the shelter. Ashley's mother immediately ran to her, separating her from the rest of them without a backward glance. They went quietly to their cars, doing their very best to avoid the news crews. Fortunately there were enough bystanders to describe the Rangers' heroics that their actions went unnoticed. Andros knew that the morpher technology was strong enough to have kept anyone from seeing their transformation, he could only hope that in the confusion no one had seen Ketana.

*

"Not bad," Ketana said, as soon as they all materialized in the Vale. "Well done, all around, you're still alive."

Andros became very, very still, an expression in his eyes that none of them, save Ketana, had ever seen. She quailed ever so slightly. "You are confined to the brig until further notice for deliberately disobeying orders," he said, brushing past her.

"Oh, c'mon Red—"

"This isn't up for debate."

"You needed me, and you damn well know it."

"It was a civilian beach, Ketana," Andros said, turning abruptly, his voice cold. "You had no right."

"What?" Cassie asked.

"Dharin was watching us. Ketana deliberately provoked him."

"How did she—" TJ started to ask.

"I'll explain – I will – but first Ketana and I are taking a little walk down to the brig," he said, grabbing her firmly by the elbow. She started to struggle and without blinking he twisted her arm back, ignoring her little gasp of pain. "Alpha, give them the 'everybody breaks' talk that we never got."

He hurried her down the hall as quickly as he could, knowing the moment they were out of sight of the others he was in for a fight.

*

Ashley sat in silence on the ride home with her mother, grateful that she wasn't on the receiving end of a stern lecture. The day had been painful enough already, pretending to be nice to the girl who was slowly turning all of her friends against her, not to mention the sudden realization that Andros was very much the opposite of who she had thought he was. When they arrived home, Ashley went up to her room, claiming she was tired and shaken from the day's events. She stuffed some pillows under her blankets in case her mother looked in, and climbed out the window, easily dropping to the ground. She couldn't stand to be in the house, surrounded by her old life.

Even though Andros (she winced at the thought) and Zhane seemed to be devoted to Ketana, she'd thought that she would at least be able to count on her old teammates. She could probably still trust Karone and Cassie, and Carlos, of course – but for how much longer? It was funny, she realized, how she still accepted Karone as a full member of team, even though she had also actively tried to kill them for nearly a year. But Karone had been forced to do all those things, and Ketana had not. Ketana actively flaunted the scars she had won doing terrible things, and seemed utterly unrepentant for them. And Andros –

"Spike! Spike, come back here!"

Ashley looked up and saw a German Shepherd bounding down the sidewalk, his leash trailing behind him. Without thinking she reached down and grabbed the leash, faster than a normal teenager should have been able to. In a panic, she looked up, but the dog's owner was only just now turning around the corner, and wouldn't have been able to see her. Relaxing, she reached down to pat the ears of the dog, who sat obediently beside her, grinning. She got a good look at the dog's owner, and her heart skipped a beat. It was the beautiful sandy-haired boy from school.

"Thank you!" he said with a smile that made it temporarily hard to breathe. "Spike can be a handful, but my sister was sure she could hold him. She's only five, but she likes us to treat her like a big girl. Spike saw a squirrel and got excited and pulled the leash out of her hand. I can't believe you got him to stop. He seems to like you, though. It's great to finally meet you."

She stared at him for a moment, trying to recover her wits.

"Sorry, I must totally sound like a crazy stalker. Let's start again," he said, grin widening. "I'm Peter."

"I'm Ashley," she said, and she couldn't help but smile in return. "Nice to meet you."

"I'm new here, my family just moved from New York. I was completely bummed my first day of school, but then I saw you across the courtyard and, well, I thought maybe Angel Grove wouldn't be totally bad." He blushed a deep crimson and reached out for the leash. "I'm going to go now before I totally convince you that I _am_ a crazy stalker."

"That was really sweet, actually," Ashley said after a moment, smiling into his beautiful light green eyes. An electric shock ran up her arm when her fingers brushed his.

"Oh, good," he said, looking relieved. A voice floated down the road, calling his name. "I need to go – see you around?"

"Definitely."

Her communicator beeped, and it took her a moment to remember that Alpha had given them all communicators that looked like cell phones, in case they were ever in a situation where it might look weird that they were talking into their watches.

"Ashley here."

"You should be here," Cassie said, her voice clearly strained.

"Then get me there. My Mom thinks I'm asleep, so I'm clear."

*

Darkonda trotted happily along, the show he witnessed as "Spike" the dog more than worth the indignity of being leashed. The oh-so-charming family unit disappeared as soon as they were out of sight.

Darkonda kept his shape, enjoying a run through the park after Dharin teleported back to the ship, smug with thoughts of his new soon-to-be conquest, and anticipating a reunion with an old one. He contemplated when he would pull the strings on Andros. And if the boy's father… Darkonda stopped cold. Andros's father. How could he have forgotten? He promptly shifted to a shape that would allow him to laugh. It was too perfect. The spells the Council had enacted had worked too well, causing him to forget his original purpose in coming to this particular section of reality. The father had been well out of his reach, but the son… He reached out for the long dormant mental links that he developed in Andros –

– and collapsed, writhing in pain has he hit a fiery wall of protection.


	22. Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty-Two: Right?

The confined space of the hallway and the hold that he had on her arm gave him the advantage when she launched her inevitable attack. It ended quickly, with Ketana pinned against the wall.

"I don't want to hurt you, Ket," he whispered to her. He had both of her arms held firmly behind her back, but released a little of the pressure forcing her into the wall. "Just come with me, and we'll get you some help—"

"You really wanna help me, Red?" she asked, teasing. Before he could respond she threw her head back, connecting with his. He stumbled back, but the blow had been more startling than painful. She freed one of her hands and turned to face him. He easily caught her incoming punch, forcing both of her hands above her head and pinning her to the wall again with all of his weight.

She kissed him, hard, biting his lip.

He pulled away, but immediately had to force her back into the wall to keep her from getting away. She laughed, her horrible, mocking laugh, and he panicked then, realizing his mistake. He couldn't let her go, knowing that he would lose her if he did. But standing there, feeling her as her body struggled for breath against his, so close… he gave in. Shoving her even harder into the wall, he closed his lips over hers, knowing that the deep moan that escaped from her throat as he did so was going to haunt him. She returned his kiss passionately, molding herself to him. He picked her up and carried her down the hall, letting his lips trail down her throat.

Then he threw her into a cell and locked it before the last of his self control failed him. She sat on the floor, looking up at him with a mixture of hurt, need and shame that drove him to his knees. They sat there, staring at each other, while Andros recovered.

"Get out," she snarled.

"We're going to get you some help, Ketana," he said, as evenly as he could.

"Get OUT!"

"No," he said quietly.

The deck plates rattled as she hit the energy shield separating them, again and again until her hands became bloody, deaf to his pleas to stop. Suddenly, she was still, staring at him, panting and bloody. "You can't help me."

"Ket—"

"Right. Tell me that it heals in time. Tell me that it will all get better and some day this will be a dim memory. Go ahead."

"Ketana—"

"Layered drugs and spells over the traditional physical conditioning – fuck the explanation. Give me what I need or get out of the way. Spare me the inspirational speeches."

"And what do you need?"

"Don't play coy with me, Red. You know."

"No, I really don't."

"Say it."

"You need to fight. You need…"  
"_Say it_."

"Physical companionship."

She laughed again. "It's not that hard, Red. A good fight, a fuck – that doesn't have to be good, mind you – I'm a girl of simple needs."

"I've seen the worst, Ketana. I know it seems bad—"

"Vasa's one of the best mind healers in the 'verse. Six months with him didn't do a bit of good, and I damn near killed Etarin in the process."

Andros stared a moment, refusing to let his mind go there.

"I'm a girl of simple needs," she repeated. "'Rin was happy to oblige."

Andros stared at her for a long moment, and shakily rose to his feet.

"Get out."

*

When Ashley noticed that Andros and Ketana weren't there she didn't say anything. Zhane watched all of them carefully as Alpha outlined the standard interrogation and torture techniques without revealing anything that had been specifically done to Ketana. It wasn't necessarily new information for him, Etarin had been through enough that he wasn't willing to shelter his younger brother just because "that sort of thing didn't happen anymore." At the end of the lecture Alpha fielded a few questions, then handed the conversation over to Zhane as he left to go check on Andros and Ketana.

"Why didn't anyone tell us about this before?" Carlos asked, pale and shaky as the rest of them.

Zhane shrugged. "You've been lucky. I don't want to negate the threat that Earth's been under for the last five years, but Zordon was doing a damn good job of protecting you and the type of warlords you were up against weren't really the kidnap and torture type, they were more the kidnap and cast a spell type. That's changed. And honestly, when the four of us were going through the Academy, we didn't get any more information that you did."

"No way," TJ said.

"There hadn't been a serious demonic incursion in over a century. Most of the Academy teachers didn't have any first hand knowledge of true war, and were confident enough in the Empire's strength that nothing was ever going to happen. Most of the Rangers from longer lived species – the ones who remembered – had either left for civilian life, or, like Zordon, were wrapped up in their own posts. And if they weren't… I'm ashamed to say they were ignored."

"No wonder your Empire fell," Cassie said, as soon as the words escaped she looked at him, eyes wide in apology.

"You're right, though. Aside from a sort of history lesson about the way things used to be, I wouldn't have known anything about what they're capable of if Etarin hadn't told me himself."

They sat in silence for a moment, mulling over everything they had just learned.

"What did Andros mean, though, that she provoked Dharin into attacking?" TJ asked.

"My guess? Dharin has always hated Andros, and I'm betting that hasn't gone away in the last few years. He probably had visual surveillance on us all day, and when Ketana got that close to Andros, well, it was more than Dharin was comfortable with."

"He sent that many troops down because Ketana whispered something to Andros?" Ashley asked.

Zhane shifted uncomfortably, trying to figure out what to say without revealing things he knew he shouldn't. "Dharin… Dharin always thought that Ketana and Andros were too friendly, and that Ketana… well, that Ketana should have belonged to him. And to jealous eyes, a whisper like that is going to look pretty intimate."

Alpha returned, catching Zhane's eye and shaking his head slightly.

"Look, it's been a long day. Go home, go get something to eat, or stay and hang out here, whatever you want. I know it's a lot to deal with, but you guys did really, really well today. You can be proud of yourselves. We're still fighting. Now you just you know one more thing that they're capable of."

"All the more reason to take them down," TJ said.

*

"Where is everyone?" Cassie asked. She and TJ had been sitting alone in the dining hall after the meeting, too tired to attempt conversation, for almost fifteen minutes.

"Dunno."

"I mean, it's not like we all said that we'd meet for dinner or anything, but…"

"They're not here," TJ said after a long pause, sounding vaguely annoyed. "We should just eat. Or go home." He rose and went to the food replicator, "I was thinking spaghetti, that work for you?"

"Uh, sure, thanks," Cassie said. The food appeared instantly, and he brought a steaming plate over for her. They were both starving, and they ate in silence.

"So, uh… what happened this morning?" Cassie asked finally.

TJ wouldn't look at her. "You were there."

"Yeah, I was, but that doesn't mean I understand it," she snapped, then relented as he seemed to shrink just a little. "I mean, I don't think I disagree with you. It just seems that it could have been… It was pretty sudden. And all those things you suddenly knew – I guess I can understand that you don't trust Ketana, but what about Andros? He's fought with us for almost a year, but you couldn't trust him enough to ask him yourself? Or, hey, you know, tell any of the rest of us that you were concerned?"

"Sorry." TJ said after a very long moment.

Cassie sighed. "How did you find all of that stuff out?"

"I talked to Dimitria, and looked up their old records. Look, just because we've known Andros for this long doesn't mean anything. Until a couple of weeks ago we had never heard anything about Ketana or this Empire. It's not that I don't trust him, but… We're part of something much larger now. And with all these shifting timelines…"

"It's hard to know who to trust anymore. It got complicated," Cassie finished for him. "But that doesn't mean you have to stop trusting _us_."

He reached across and took her hand, and she almost got a smile. But all too soon he was standing, putting their dishes back and heading for the door. "My family's expecting me. See you tomorrow."

The joy of her tiny victory faded, and she sat there alone at the table for a long time, trying not to cry. How long ago had it been, that he had held her as they'd watched the Earth from orbit, how long since the last time they'd played with Jackson in the park, how long since their last kiss? Five weeks, six, she couldn't remember anymore. It had been long enough that she was used to fractures in the team, used to Ketana's jarring presence. Used to being alone.

*

Zhane should not have been surprised to find Karone waiting for him as he came out of the shower, but somehow her presence put him on edge. He had known that this was coming, especially after the power play Ketana had pulled this morning, but he'd hoped to not be so exhausted when it happened. Their fight had gone well. For the first time since Ketana's reappearance they had all moved as one, as a complete team. Already Zhane could feel those bonds faltering, but under Andros's leadership, maybe, just maybe they could all heal.

That didn't do anything for his immediate problem, though.

"Hi," he said simply, keenly aware of the water dripping down his bare back and soaking into the waistband of his shorts. Absently, he rubbed at his hair with the towel.

"Hi," Karone said, a slight blush touching her cheeks. "I didn't think that you…"

He sighed, continuing to the closet and grabbing a shirt and a pair of pants. "Back in a sec," he said, flashing a grin and letting the oh-so-charming mask slip back into place. He ran through situations in his head as he pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, trying to figure out the best way to talk Karone out of murdering Ketana without completely dismissing her fairly valid hurt at the situation. A new wave of energy flooded into his body, and grimly he recognized it as the nanites from his morpher repairing his body quicker than normal in preparation for a perceived "battle." He took a deep breath before walking back out.

Karone had dimmed the lights, and a few pale purple witch lights danced around the room. She was sitting on the edge of his bed, a shy but unmistakable smile curving her lips.

Of all the situations he had just prepared for, this was sure as hell not one of them.

*

Ashley closed the door quietly, wanting nothing more than a long hot shower to drive away the images that Alpha had conjured in his lecture.

"Where have you been? I've been worried sick!"

Her mother was sitting in the living room, waiting for her. Ashley sighed and stepped into the door frame but didn't go over to her mother. "I—I went over to Cassie's and—"

"Don't lie to me, Ashley. The first thing I did was call Cassie's parents, they haven't seen her since she left to come over here this morning. They didn't even know she was at the beach during the attack today! They're about to call the police, they're so worried! And you! Walking in late and lying to me? Honey, what's going on?"

"It's nothing, Mom, don't worry about it. I was just out walking."

"At this hour? Alone?"

"I can take care of myself."

"You're seventeen years old, Ashley. I know Angel Grove seems safe, but there are things out there… not just the monsters."

"Let it go, Mom, okay? I wasn't alone, and I was perfectly safe."

"Then where were you? Who were you with?"

"With my friends? You know, Cassie and TJ and Carlos?" Ashley said, and technically it wasn't a lie. "We wanted to… we wanted to get together and talk about what happened on the beach today, make sure everybody was okay."

"Why did you lie to me, and tell me that you went to Cassie's?"

"I was. I just met her on the way, and we went from there."

"She didn't even talk to her parents to let them know that she was all right?"

"I guess not."

Her mother stared at her for a long moment. "Don't ever worry me like that again, Ashley."

"I won't. Can I go to bed now? I'm kind of tired, you know, after the shock earlier today."

"Of course, sweetie."

*

He wondered, vaguely, if he'd given in too easily. But it made her happy, and it had definitely made him happy. Picking up where they had left off, their reunion had been somewhere between the tender awkwardness of their first time and the long, lingering night they'd shared before Ketana's ill-fated birthday. She was worth it, no matter what happened – always had been, always would be.

Karone sighed contentedly, snuggling close against his chest. "At least I'll always have you."

"Of course," he whispered, kissing the top of her head.


	23. Chapter TwentyThree

Chapter Twenty-Three: Impress me.

Reality returned to Darkonda excruciatingly slowly. For a long time he was aware only of pain and a terrible thirst. Having not encountered that level of protection on Andros the first time, he had been ill-prepared to defend himself against it. The Phoenix influence on this plane was growing stronger.

As the pain receded he cursed the fact that he had retreated to his lab alone and that there was no one to attend his recovery, and then thought better of it. His demonic counterparts would have been all too glad to take advantage of his weakened state, and the mortals he tended to accept as apprentices were no less opportunistic. Dragging oneself out of the Abyss after death was always such an inconvenience.

When he had sufficiently recovered to stand on his own – he refused to be reduced to dragging himself across the floor – he rose and walked, slightly unsteady, to his private store, deciding that his dwindling supply of Ketana's blood would be the fastest way to restore himself. The devastating response to his probe on Andros had felt more like an unconscious swat than a concerted attack, but if he had alerted the power protecting Andros he would have to move quickly.

For all that he was in pain, for all that he had lost direct control over his favorite toy, Darkonda still threw his head back and laughed.

*

Dharin tried to calm himself. What he was about to do required the utmost control, and would be very difficult if he was still seething with rage at his own failure. He could almost hear his mother's voice whispering in his ear, admonishing him for wasting his time on that fatherless bastard. No wonder Ketana had never respected him, no wonder his father denied him his proper due. He would show them.

*

Ecliptor followed his son through the bowels of the ship, as every self-preserving bone in his body screamed at him to turn back. With the morning's loss of face, he knew that Dharin didn't dare ask Bastion for replacements. He would instead call them out of the hell dimensions himself, a skill he had learned from his thrice-be-damned mother.

Son of his second wife, born of a loveless marriage, Dharin had suffered from Ecliptor's neglect and Ecliptor knew it all too well. When his beloved first wife had died Ecliptor had mechanically done what was expected of him: dutifully marrying the "suitable" candidate presented to him, staying faithful and providing a male heir.

Ecliptor ducked into the maintenance shaft as they grew closer to their destination. He inched his way through the passage he had painstakingly created and hidden, to the room his son had set aside for his dark business. It was certain death for him if he was discovered and he knew it. It wasn't even that he could use the passage for spying. He was already all too familiar with the demon summoning rituals, and Dharin was rarely willing to talk strategy with foot soldiers who couldn't cross through the planes on their own. No, Ecliptor was there in case something went wrong, and Dharin needed him.

Ecliptor clung, still, to the hope that he might be able to save his son from the sins of his parents.

*

Sufficiently sated and refreshed, Darkonda turned his attention to his appearance, shifting into the shape of a tall, humanoid male with blond and brown streaked hair and brown eyes that were almost light enough to be called golden. It amused him to no end that in the time that he had had Andros in captivity he had actually had been wearing the face of the boy's true father. That would make for a rather entertaining family reunion, if one ever occurred. It might be worth the risk to allow Cadeyrn to see his son, just so he might see the hatred in Andros's eyes.

*

Karone stretched languidly, more than a little pleased with the night's events. She rolled over, and found Zhane propped up on one elbow, a grin as large as her own stretched across his lips.

"Good morning, beautiful."

"Morning. How long have you been watching me?"  
"Long enough to know that you still talk in your sleep."

"I so do not."

"Yes, yes you do."

"Really? What did I say?"

"Oh, I don't think I can repeat any of it. Makes me blush just to think about it."

She giggled, and hit him with a pillow. "Liar."

"Is that how it's going to be?" he asked, retaliating in-kind, leading to their very favorite morning ritual of pillow-fighting, wrestling, and some of the things Zhane claimed she spoke of in her sleep.

Later, as he went to fetch them some breakfast, she wrapped herself in a sheet and sat on the edge of the bed, thinking. The first time she had found herself among the rangers it had been a strange thing, to suddenly find herself among such trusting and innocent people, to be accepted as she was. She'd feared that alienation again as they'd limped back to Earth after their desperate flight to save Ketana, but it had never happened. Her memories of life before the orbs were stronger than the false ones. Her time as Astronema was an abstract thing, half-remembered. It felt more as if it were something she had seen in a holo-video rather than experienced herself. Being here, now, with Zhane, it felt as if none of it happened. Surely there was a way to bring this same sort of peace to Andros and Ketana, and she would find it.

They were halfway through breakfast when Zhane finally turned to her. "Wanna talk about it?"  
"I think I was pretty vocal about my satisfaction concerning last night, but if you'd like further proof…"

Zhane smiled, and she melted just a little more. "You should be a little more careful about the offers you make, or we'll never leave this room," he said, kissing the inside of her wrist. "But no. I meant about yesterday, with Ketana.

Karone sighed. She'd secretly been relieved at Ketana's power play this morning; it had given Karone an opportunity to see more of what Ketana had become, and where the rest of team stood. Karone knew now that she could count on Ashley and Cassie, and she knew that Zhane would be hers from now on. TJ would follow Andros, but might be swayed by Cassie – especially if Ketana continued to be antagonistic. Carlos was an unknown factor at present, but she was willing to bet that his allegiance would ultimately lay with Ashley. Love was a powerful thing. "Ketana's trying to push all of us away and she has been from the start. We can't let her do that."

"I know."

She considered, briefly, telling him her assessment of where the team's loyalties led, but decided against. Better to let him think that she was willing to let Ketana win, or at least think that she had. It wasn't, per se, that she was upset that Ketana had removed her from power, but rather that she had blindsided her so effectively. Karone wasn't used to feeling left behind. "Andros has more experience, both in the field and leading the Earthborn. I don't really mind that he took over. I just wish Ketana hadn't done it the way that she did."

"You and me both."

"We can make it all right again, I know we can. We can help them both."

*

Darkonda was nowhere to be found, and Dharin found himself wishing that the Chaos demon was there as back-up, and just as quickly rejecting that thought as weakness. Darkonda hadn't said much about the morning's unsuccessful raid, reminding him only briefly before accompanying Dharin on his first serious play for Ashley's affections that Andros was Darkonda's and Darkonda's alone to deal with.

Still, some days it seemed that the satisfaction to be gained from oh-so-slowly killing the upstart would be worth incurring Darkonda's wrath.

He pushed those thoughts from his mind, drawing the silver blade across his palm and drawing the glyph on the floor, chanting as his mother had taught him. He would content himself with destroying the will and capturing the team of rangers, for now. Revenge could wait.

*

The ritual didn't go badly, as Ecliptor had watched in horrified fascination, secretly wishing that it would. He stayed in his hiding place for a long time after his son had left with his new recruits.

It shamed him to the core that this was his son. He found himself wishing, not for the first time, that Karone was the child of his body. This thought brought with it further regret. His hope for the redemption of his son was a fragile thing, though he sheltered it as best he could.

As he emerged from hiding, dusting himself off, he knew that his time here was drawing to a close. He had known that his charade wouldn't last forever. Time to find out how many friends he yet retained among the Elite.

*

Ashley woke early, unable to sleep. She went down the kitchen, silently, and started to prepare breakfast for herself. She had skipped dinner the night before, and was ravenous. Fortunately, both of her parents were heavy sleepers.

She sat on the kitchen counter as she ate, ankles drumming gently against the cabinets. She let her thoughts wander, though she thought mostly of Peter, currently the one bright spot in her life.

A brightly colored flier under her mother's purse caught her eye, and she pulled it out and started reading about the Citizens Against the Power Rangers, very nearly dropping her glass on the floor. Surely it was a joke.

Surely her mother didn't believe it.

Her communicator chirped and she ignored it. It chirped again, more insistently, and she covered it with her hands, hoping to muffle the sound. She shoved the flier back under her mother's purse and backed away.

"Ashley here."

"Everything all right?"

"Yes, Karone. Everything's fine."

*

Darkonda whistled as he returned to the ship in the early hours of the morning.

"You are remarkably chipper," Dharin said, mostly hiding his annoyance at Darkonda's new face. Darkonda studied him for a moment, noting the toll that summoning forth the new soldiers had taken on Dharin. The human was handling it well, Darkonda noted with approval. He was more than willing to keep cultivating so promising a pupil, though Dharin's appeal couldn't compare with the prospect of destroying Cadeyrn's son, especially if he could do so with Cadeyrn's full knowledge.

Darkonda realized, then, that Dharin was still talking, and waved an elegant hand for silence. "Uncle Darkonda has more important things to do than listen to you prattle on about your plans. Keep your hands off of Andros and keep Ketana alive. Beyond that… Impress me."


End file.
